Bill O'Reilly: Malaysians are barely eating and can't afford to buy hats.

Yes, it sucks here. Can you guys go back to ignoring us, please?

My typical lunch. It’s expensive by Malaysian standards - RM13 (US$3). You can easily get a decent meal for RM6-8.

At this point, I'm starting to feel a tad sorry for Bill O'Reilly. It's clear that the fading former "journalist" (if he can even be called that) is trying to mine engagement for his Youtube channel. That's pathetic.

Unfortunately, Malaysians are falling for his insults and are contributing to his engagement rate by leaving comments, though I'm having a lot of fun reading them.

FYI, O’Reilly recently said Malaysians have no money to “help” China. He’s doubling down with his narrative. Whatever.

In truth, Malaysians like to be underestimated. We don't really like attention. We've seen what "attention" from powerful countries can do to smaller, weaker nations, so we avoid it as best as we can.

Unfortunately, Malaysia is now known to be a retirement paradise and medical tourism destination, so we can't avoid attention even if we want to.

Now, what I love about the whole Tiktok refugees xiaohongshu cultural exchange was seeing how mindblown these folks were about life in China. (I, on the other hand, was mindblown they didn't know that China was a safe, advanced, modern and efficient nation. I thought they didn't live behind a Great Firewall?? The information is right there on the world wide web for all to see!)

Anyway, I really enjoyed looking at xhs videos describing life in China. The little itty, bitty details, like visits to supermarkets and how their homes look like.

I thought I'll do the same by illustrating how I live, now that Bill O'Reilly is saying all kinds of weird things about us.

My lifestyle

For context: US$1 is about RM4.

I'm solidly middle-class. I admit I earn above the average Malaysian salary (but not to wealthy levels), and because I have no kids, I have a lot of disposable income. I save about 30-40% of my salary most of the time.

I could save more, but I like to travel locally in Malaysia. (I've done most of my international travelling in my 20s and 30s, and it has lost its luster for me.) So, a lot of my disposable income is spent on travel.

Gurney Park, Penang, is a public park by the sea that I love to go to for morning and evening walks when I visit my hometown.

I live a solidly average Malaysian life. Although I can afford to rent a luxury condo, I live alone in a simple walk-up, three-bedroom flat. It's the kind of place lower or middle class families live in; it has no elevators and no fancy facilities like swimming pools. My rent is RM1,200 (around US$400) which is low for my area.

I have a fully paid-off property which I rent out (because I prefer to live in my current area). The rent offsets the rental of my unit, so I basically pay next to nothing for accommodation. Utilities is about RM120 for Internet, RM50 for electricity per month. And water's about RM20 per month at most.

I have a fully paid-off car, which I paid too much for (about RM35k, considered cheap for a brand-new car).

I barely use it because I work from home and prefer to walk everywhere to do my chores and use public transport. As a result, I pay about RM50 (US$12 or so) of petrol once every 2 months.

I'm a minimalist, so I barely shop for things like clothes, bags or luxury goods. I only buy necessities. Though I think I buy too many food storage containers. I have an unhealthy obsession for them. I just bought four more glass containers. Do I need them? No. But damn those xiaohongshu videos featuring them.

We don't eat enough?

Man, I wish I was eating less, but I just don’t know how because I’m surrounded by so much good food. So many cultural cuisines to choose from: Chinese, Indian, Malay, Middle-Eastern, what have you! I have to decide what not to eat every day.

Malaysia has the second-highest obesity rate in South-east Asia. 24-hour eateries exist. Our food is acknowledged as one of the best in the world. I really could stand to lose half my body weight.

And although food has gotten more expensive over the years, it is still affordable. To illustrate how affordable it is, on Sundays, I go to an "economy rice" place near my home, to "stock up" on food for the week. (I don't cook during weekdays.) The idea is to have enough food for lunch and dinner for about three days, but I often end up struggling to finish it by end of the week.

This is one of the fancier “economy rice” places I go to. Food there is more expensive than the average. Yet, it’s still affordable.

It costs me roughly RM20-RM25 to buy three meat dishes. I prefer to supplement my own vegetables, and since I have my own vegetable garden, I sometimes don't buy vegetables. If I do, it's about RM2-4 per packet of leafy greens. To demonstrate just how lazy I am cooking even vegetables, I'd usually stock up on the free soup the economy rice stores give out and toss in some mushrooms or spinach and call it a day.

I spread the food out for at least 5 meals. So, it costs about RM4 per meal, roughly US$1 per meal.

My mum, by the way, nags me that I should stop going to that economy rice place because it's too expensive!

I also have another vice: Daily coffee runs! I try my best to buy RM5 coffee from Family Mart or something, but I like sitting in cafes to read.

Healthcare

From Richard Ker, on X. RM30.50 is about US$7.

It is true, Malaysians can pay just RM1 to get treatment at a hospital. I've had friends who went through entire cancer treatments at public hospitals (chemo, surgery, medicines etc) and the bill is only a few thousand ringgit. (Maybe around US$1000-2000 tops.)

I am also eternally grateful, as a member of the Gen-X sandwich generation, that my parents were government servants, so their medical bills are taken care of by the government. I don't have lose sleep over paying their medical bills or medicines. (In Asia, children take care of their parents' medical needs most of the time.)

That said, it isn't entirely roses. Some medicines need to be paid for. A friend, who didn't have medical insurance, had to pay a few thousand for a special medicine for her cancer.

That's why insurance still exists in Malaysia, and that gives us more wriggle room. Honestly, I feel that our insurance industry is also predatory, but probably not as bad as those in the United States (my monthly premiums are painfully expensive), but at least our government is stepping in to help.

Recently, after insane insurance premium increases, the government stepped in with regulations and by offering basic affordable insurance for the masses.

In conclusion, I think I’m living pretty well

My lifestyle isn't applicable to everyone in Malaysia. There are people who are poor, homeless and hungry in my country. But on the average, Malaysians lead fairly comfortable lives as long as they don't live beyond their means.

Should more be done to improve our lives? Sure!

But I take comfort in the fact that as a middle class Malaysian, I don't have to pinch pennies to have enough to eat, have a roof over my head and have enough to travel once in a while.

Bonus: I also don't have to worry about gunmen when I'm shopping, can rely on public healthcare, or, if I'm really, really in a bad way financially, can still afford healthy food at RM4 per meal.

I hope you have a clearer idea of how we live in Malaysia, and if you meet anyone who believe O'Reilly's nonsense, just show them this newsletter.

Then, on second thoughts, maybe not. Let them think we're poor so that they won't be interested in us. We Malaysians like to be ignored ;)

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