SEPTEMBER 10 — In 2015 my wife and I began to consider our retirement plans. We knew that we wanted to move to SE Asia as we wanted to take advantage of our age and travel throughout this part of our world while our health still permitted. While researching online, my wife discovered the Malaysia My 2nd Home programme.
We initially chose Malaysia because of its high use of English, central location for easy travel throughout Asia, and the promise of a renewable 10-year MM2H visa. After retiring and moving to Penang in 2018, our reasons for living here have changed significantly. We quickly came to love so many things about living in Malaysia. Friendly smiles from almost everyone we encounter, or a strangers willingness to go out of their way to help a lost and bumbling orang asing convinced us that Malaysians are truly warm and friendly people. We love it when a local proudly recommends their favourite food such as Penang laksa, curry mee, ikan bakar, chicken masala, durian kampung, rojak or cendol and have come to embrace the food culture here.
However, beginning October 1st, the rules of the MM2H programme will change. While the original rules of the programme required applicants to have a minimum of RM10,000 per month in offshore income, we will now be required to have RM40,000 per month. The original rules required us to deposit RM150,000 in a fixed deposit here in Malaysia, we will now be required to place RM1,000,000 in a fixed deposit.
We are privileged to live here in Malaysia and know that the government has the right to change the rules under which we live, and we acknowledge that we are not entitled to any special treatment. More importantly, the Malaysian government is currently focused on leading our country out of the most challenging situation since World War 2, not on trying to appease a small number of kaya orang asing.