YOURSAY | ‘'X' marks the spot where someone from North Korea was poisoned.’

FT Ministry aims to make KL among world’s Top 5 visited cities

Anonymous 539281478077880: Sorry, Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, your dream to make Kuala Lumpur among the world's Top 5 most visited cities will fizzle out.

Malaysia has "flourished" with corruption, religious police, snatch thefts, rogue taxi charges, etc. With all these, how do you expect to woo visitors to KL, Tengku Adnan?

Tony Soprano: According to the list of Top 10 most visited cities, Bangkok, as usual, occupies first place, followed by London, Paris, Dubai, New York, Singapore, KL, Istanbul, Tokyo and Seoul. 

The fastest-growing city of international visitors is, of all places, Chengdu. Not even Shanghai. Weird.

As a former expatriate who has spent 40 years in KL, Dubai, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Europe and West Africa, and visited all the other listed cities extensively, I can offer my opinions for the list.

First, I don't understand the allure of Bangkok. I much prefer Chiang Mai, but to each his own. London is still the financial centre of Europe, (though its market capitalisation is only one sixth of New York's).

Naturally, London offers much, much more than stock markets and the English language, and is easily accessible to Americans as well as Europeans.

Paris is, well, Paris - not only beautiful and cultural, but was a legendary hangout for American writers such as Hemmingway and Fitzgerald, thus again attracting as many Americans as Europeans, and the Chinese.

Dubai is not only a crossroad but exotic in two ways: the skyscrapers for the Chinese, and the old Dubai Creek area for Westerners, as it truly reminds them of the Ottoman Empire and TE Lawrence (of Arabia).

New York is favoured by European and Canadian visitors for its centre of power and cultural offerings, and by the Chinese who expect big skyscrapers, but are disappointed to find that the most famous one is not that tall and was built in 1929.

Singapore is considered a generic-looking, authoritarian nanny state by Westerners and is thus passed by in favour of mainly Asian visitors. Istanbul is another Dubai-like crossroad that resembles both San Francisco and, of course, the Ottomans.

Tokyo is particularly ugly, but dazzling at night and is very cosmopolitan, unlike the rest of Japan. Finally, Seoul has absolutely no appeal to Westerners, and I suspect many Asian visitors have watched too many Korean TV dramas.

Bob The Builder: Umno leaders must be dreaming. What is there for visitors to see in KL, or what is there to attract tourists? Foreign tourists have better skyscrapers in their own country and better city planning.

As for culture, this allegedly racist country with its religious fanatics will scare visitors away instead of attracting them.

NNFC: Indeed, KL has become increasingly unattractive because it does not project itself as progressive and free.

The talk of hudud, clamping down on freedom of the press, GST (goods and services tax), and failure to promote itself as a free-world destination is really hurting our tourism.

Sleepy: 'X' marks the spot where someone from North Korea was poisoned. Yes, I can see tourists coming in droves.

Great difference between Nik Aziz’s and Hadi Awang’s PAS

Kim Quek: The intensity of the campaign of hatred and falsehood staged against these opposition leaders by PAS is shocking and certainly unsurpassed by any in the past.

And PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan would not have done it without the approval or even instigation of the party chief, Abdul Hadi Awang.

Is Hadi worried that his repudiation of the entire opposition front may not be accepted by PAS? Is Hadi really so deeply committed to Najib that he must resort to such contemptible tactics?

What do PAS deputy Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and vice-president Iskandar Samad have to say about this?

Worldly Wise: Hadi is both narrow-minded and small-minded.

Hadi is narrow-minded because he wants to enforce what he claims are proscriptions, injunctions and rituals set out 1,400 years ago when there was 90 percent illiteracy and severe punishments were warranted.

Hadi is small-minded because for some undisclosed reason, he does not want to condemn the misappropriation of billions from 1MDB, allegedly committed by one Malaysian Official 1 (MO1).

Hornbill: A person I knew personally travelled 400km to vote for PAS in GE13 because PAS was then part of the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat.

Now that PAS is cosying up with Umno, under Hadi, I do not think this person will vote if PAS is contesting against the BN, because either way, whether PAS wins or BN wins, it will be a BN win.

PAS will eventually join the BN-controlled government if it wins any seat against the BN or the opposition pact.

Yes, under Hadi, PAS is so radicalised that even the Taliban looks like a moderate movement. Accusing the DAP or Lim Kit Siang as "anti-Islam" or anti-Malay without a shred of evidence is un-Islamic, and PAS should know it.

PAS is probably being loathed, even by most Malays now, for being so treacherous.

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