views 11

May 20 — 22, 2011

A Leaving and arriving:

Caucasian couple with a toddler on tow walked out
of the arrival hall. As the parents’ attention was
focused on a row of men holding up name placards,
the toddler, lying face down, dragged himself along the

The non-place
marble floor, as if licking it, then got up and mischievously
scurried away.
Luckily his mother turned around just in time to run after
him, before he got lost among other worn-out travellers
streaming out into the hall. Airport transitions sometimes
take a while, and children usually devise their own ways to
keep themselves busy.
My mother is an avid traveller.
Ever since we were young, we would
travel during the school holidays.
Tripping Zero 3
My brother and I used to have a blast Sharyn Shufiyan
playing with the luggage trolley,
pushing each other as my mother the world as of 2010), it is relatively
did all the adult stuff – checking in, quiet, even amid the hustle and
luggage drop, determining the gates. bustle of arriving and departing
To other people, we may have been people. This is a stark difference to
a nuisance. its annexe, the Low Cost Carrier
I had never really known the Terminal (LCCT).
airport process until my first solo KLIA is the primary gateway for
travel experience at age 19. Although international visitors, and first
I was already familiar with airports, impressions matter. KLIA appears
it is different when you’re travelling modern, competent and stylish, the
alone. I felt independent. I felt free. face of a developed nation. But I
I was ready to leave home. personally prefer the smaller and
I love airports. I love the feeling quaint small-town airports, where
of walking up to the departure the arrival and departure halls are
board and figuring out your check- one, and when you walk out across
in counter. I love walking through the aircraft parking bay, the engines
immigration, past the duty-free of the aircraft purr in the background.
shops and towards the departure Airports like KLIA see a lot of
gate. I love lugging my hand-carry movement. It is what French
around the halls and walkways. I Anthropologist Marc Augè termed
love watching the planes take off a “non-place”, spaces of such airport has also been made into
and touch down. I even love the temporary and transient activity reality TV in the form of Border
sound your shoes make on the that do not have the significance of Security: Australia’s Front Line,
aerobridge. being called a “place”. which follows the work of Aus­tra­
I love leaving every time, but These places retain little or no lian customs and immi­g ration
most of all, I love coming home. traces of engagement or interaction. officers.
The Kuala Lumpur International We spend most of our time at the But airports remind me of the
Airport, or KLIA, is located in airport either waiting for our flight, relationships and people we come
Sepang and takes about one hour to or for family or friends (or in the case into contact with as we go on in life.
reach by car from the city centre. with LCCT, delays). We meet new people and form
Opened in 1998, KLIA is one of the The infrastructure of airports is new relationships. Some of these
largest airports in Southeast Asia. such that it is actually comfortable may work, while others falter and
At RM8.5 billion, the building of to be spending a lot of time there, we never see these people again.
KLIA was dubbed Malaysia’s most with amenities such as VIP lounges, Our lives are continuously moving
ambitious and one of the biggest Wi-Fi, cafés, shops and banks. and changing , and while we as
construction projects in the world, Writer Alain de Botton even indi­v iduals remain unmoving ,
with 450 project teams, more than lived in Heathrow airport as its like the infrastructure of the
26 design contracts, and 80 writer-in-residence, observing and airport building, our relationships
construction contracts. documenting the interactions of are fluid.
The majestic structure of glass staff, executives and travellers that Like life itself, nothing is
and concrete which forms the main pass through. permanent. As we learn new things
terminal building is huge and Airports are also appearing in from the people we come into
spacious. Perhaps due to its large movies such as Terminal, Up in the contact with and create new
spaces and low traffic of travellers Air and Going the Distance, experiences, we also go through loss As I sit here in the main terminal encapsulating these emotions
(although Wikipedia states that featuring the state of liminality as and departures – and I do not mean building, I realise that I do not adapt within its walls. For as soon as you
KLIA is the 17th busiest airport in part of its discourse. Life at the only in a macabre way. well to change, especially when step out, you leave the emotions
someone decides to take the behind and you move on.
outbound flight out of my life. You The state of being is temporary;
Students should be consulted, too get so accustomed to having them
around that when they’re gone, you
feel a sort of vacuum, as if this person
we are constantly moving, leaving
and arriving. But when someone
significant finally arrives, that
The History subject in Malay- ful and glossy His- with student represen- had never existed and you had wonderful, glorious feeling of
sian secondary schools has been tory textbooks. tatives. Students’ aspi- dreamt his or her presence. anticipation and sheer joy surges
politicised to such an extent that The m in istr y rations and expecta- Like the person you had just through you. Although the feeling
it does not interest students any- only reacts and in- tions must be factored brushed shoulders with while is temporary, it is heavenly.
more. Unfortunately, the govern- forms the public in the formulation of waiting for your luggage: for a split And every so often, the familiar
ment leaders still do not know that they seek teach- the syllabus. second, the person existed as you jingle comes on: “Flight MH1
why the subject no longer inter- ers’ views when The current govern- acknowledged his or herpresence, London to Kuala Lumpur is now
ests students.  there is a public out- ment says it is con- but as you move on, that person is arriving.”
Schools exist to provide educa- cry. Do the ministry officials ever cerned about brain drain, and but a distant memory.
tion that enables and empowers take students’ views, since they are spends millions of taxpayers’ mon- Although KLIA may be a non-
students to contribute to society the main stakeholders? ey to woo them back. But at the place, a transitory ground, it bears
and the nation. Yet there is a con- The syllabus is also too narrow same time, it is only making super- witness to a lot of emotions being
certed effort to tamper with the as students are are now well ex- ficial and primitive changes to our exchanged, feelings of happiness,
syllabus by erasing the diverse, posed to worldviews through the education system. sadness, anxiety, exasperation,
multiethnic and multireligious internet and other alternative We need more proactive and fatigue.
fabric of our country. media. Therefore, it is not possible inclusive action, not shallow prom- KLIA has seen some of my most
Schools should be free of in- to impose parochial and dogmatic ises from the government to encour- heartbreaking moments, its floors
doctrination, evangelism and rac- views on their minds. age Malaysians to come back. has felt the wetness of my tears. I
ism if we as a nation are to compete It is important that the minis- Let’s improve History to make had uttered some of the most
with other countries. Sadly, the try takes an inclusive approach to it more inclusive. difficult goodbyes I could ever have
Education Ministry seems more not only History, but also Moral said in my lifetime. But it is a
concerned with producing colour- Studies through consultations Senator S Ramakrishnan capsule made of glass and steel,