Antara Beijing Dan Kuala Lumpur

Yesterday, I met a friend/(colleague, of ex-colleague, does not matter), over dinner. She is from Sungai Petani and both of us were walking around Chaoyang Park, Beijing, before proceeding for dinner. That whole walking journey was more than one and half hour, and we walked through a big park, and then we went to a local restaurant. The whole journey could be more than 4km I think. We also passed by a section of the road which is dark without street light. And this friend was mentioning to me. She said, "Choong, one thing I am very sure and certain is that, the feeling in Beijing is safe. I said, sure, cause I have stayed here for more than a year, and when weather was fine and not too windy, I even went for my jogging alone, around 9-10pm after I came back from office. And the feeling was good, and you don't have to worry about anything at all. You just feel safe, and comfortable".
I remembered when I was here, 14 years ago, I was sort of being 'warned' by my tourist guide not to wander outside the hotel after dinner time, when I came for my vacation back then. There is a vast improvement compared to just 14 years ago. And not only this, my friend also commented that, their road system is very well built up and integrated, with proper pavement and disable-friendly. Look and compare how much they have improved. I know every body is watching how long can they sustain, especially after the Olympics, but I am sure Beijing will be even better with time.
Back in our home country, I heard situation is not very good, from news in the internet and also from this friend sharing some concern with me. She said, even when she is driving (in a car), she is also a bit worried. And during CNY, I was in Kuala Lumpur, driving from the city towards Selayang area along Jalan Kuching, the road was bumpy, and not well tarred. And a lot more issues which I do not want to highlight here. I remembered when I was back in Kuala Lumpur about one year ago, riding our ERL express, a Shanghai visitor asked me in Mandarin whether Kuala Lumpur is safe, as he read many news (articles) concerning the safety and security issue. Being a proud Malaysian, and always wanting to promote our cities visitors/tourists, I assured him that it is fine, and safe, as long as he does not wander off to some unknown places (and I also explain to him that, any city in the world would have some risk factor too, even in Shanghai itself). But deep down, I down feel good that these type of news keep on appearing in local newspaper here. And during my business calls here in Beijing, some customers did pose this question to me. It can sometime, caught me by surprise and I really do not know how to answer them. My usual answer is that, it is not as bad as what was being reported.
What I want to say here, and my friend share the same sentiment, is that, we do not wish, as Malaysian to see we are moving backward. Beijing and most cities in China are getting better and better. And even if you visit Ho Chin Minh city, and some other cities (for example, Jakarta) in SEA, it is getting better. We just hope and want to see Malaysia getting better and ahead, positively, in many aspects. And I hope we will make it happen, together.

Choong, Beijing.