AS A somehow follow up to the recent viral anti-Korean sentiment sparked by the behavior of some South Korean expatriates in the Mont Kiara enclave of Kuala Lumpur, a self-proclaimed corporate girl has mooted the labelling of expats who are rude and disrespectful to locals as simply “immigrants”.
The idea came about after she bumped into two European women (British judging from their accents) who “gave me the whole pandang atas bawah (look up and down) treatment before asking, ‘Do you live here? Are you local?’” when she visited her officemate’s place.
“Now I know people weren’t exaggerating when they said foreigners living in Mont Kiara pandang rendah (look down) at locals,” penned Fierasya (@fierasyaa) on Threads.
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I haven’t even had my coffee yet this morning, so I got instantly irritable and replied right away, “Yes, I’m local. Malaysian. And you’re both immigrants from which country?”
Before they’re able to response, I quickly quipped, “oops, my friend’s here. Excuse me.” 🤣 But I swear I noticed their facial expression change the moment I called them immigrants. And that’s what I found amusing about the whole encounter.
Before signing off, the irritated professional dropped another bombshell which somehow echoed DAP lawmaker Syerleena Abdul Rashid’s reminder in late August that “Mont Kiara isn’t owned by Koreans” and that “Malaysians shouldn’t compromise if they encounter any racist act”.
View on Threads
Funny how these immigrants, especially whites are comfortable questioning whether locals belong in their own neighbourhood but suddenly take offence when they’re reminded that they’re immigrants, too.
The audacity. Apparently, the label only sounds bad when it’s directed at them.
‘Mont Kiara was once Kampung Segambut Dalam’
Interestingly, the poster’s unpleasant morning encounter sparked a somehow widespread awareness as gauged from the 16.7K likes, 1.1K comments, 1.8K re-posts and 432 shares to her rant.
“Gonna start calling them immigrants now,” heeded one Stokin berlubang GD belah kanan ✨(@majaghina_) with WSam (@wankenubi) seconding “please do”.
“Don’t use the word ‘expat’. Till Dooms Day comes, our professionals in Western countries will never be addressed as ‘expats’ but simply as immigrants,” asserted the commenter, alluding to a tit-for-tat treatment.
“Exactly. When I was stationed in Germany, they just didn’t believe I worked in a professional field. We’re treated as if we’re zero. Not all of them are like that yet most of them look at us up and down,” recounted a former Malaysian expat.
As calls were rife to normalise calling the Miont Kiara expat community “immigrants”, the poster earned herself the distinction for “not having been stuttered” but was able to put her foot down during the awkward encounter with unruly expats.
This was when one commenter made the call “to normalise calling Mont Kiara with its real name (which was) Kampung Segambut Dalam”.
‘And now I’ll call them immigrants at Kampung Segambut Dalam,” hailed another with one netizen reckoning “why changed the name to Mont Kiara when Segambut is more pleasant to hear”.
At the end of the day, a self-proclaimed Englishman living and working remotely in Kuala Lumpur somehow concurred with the poster that rude expats deserve to be chastised as “immigrants”.
“I’m an immigrant married to a local and I hate the behaviour of people in neighbourhoods like this which is why I would never live in them,” confessed one Darren Cronian (@remotedarren).
“I’m really surprised that people behave this way in a foreign country but honestly nothing surprises me anymore.” – Oct 31, 2026
