Malaysians As A People

Thanks to a number of great leaders in the past, we have fared better than many (dare I say most) of the other former colonies of European imperial powers. Thanks to the likes of Tun Razak Hussein and Tun Dr Mahathir, ably supported by a few great though relatively faceless (faceless to the general public) civil servants, Malaysia is on the way to becoming an economically developed country. Most certainly there are other countries that have done better than ourselves, but I think we should not be too disheartened when comparing ourselves to city states with near homogeneous populations that you can jog around. As a country that includes territories separated by a thousand miles of the South China Sea, with a peculiar set of political demands, we have a lot more variables and issues to contend with and are therefore that much more difficult to manage.

Materially, the average Malaysian now lives very much better than the average person in many other countries. We eat so much richer now that we now have a problem of obesity. Whereas the average Malaysian did not own cars in 1957, even my driver had two cars and a motorcycle in 2007. Our network of roads and highways is as good as any in the world. Then again there are the schools and universities, the hospitals, the sports and leisure facilities, the Petronas Twin Towers, etc., etc. As for leisure, do you know that there are cabbies in Malaysia who actually play golf?

Even as recently as the mid-1970’s very few people outside of South East Asia even knew that a country called Malaysia existed. Those of us who for one reason or another had to go overseas, invariably had to explain that Malaysia was a country north of Singapore and south of Thailand, or that Malaysia was not the capital of Singapore, or that Malaysia was not in China or in Vietnam, etc., etc. I have even heard of an instance when an African diplomat asked a Malaysian diplomat about how bad our last winter was, to which the naughty Malaysian replied that we had six feet of snow in the capital city. The last time I was in Europe however, I was only asked if I believed that our former Deputy Prime Minister actually committed sodomy. Asked the same question, I believe that some of us would maybe reply,’ Irrelevant’. Others would maybe reply, ‘Who Cares’, ‘What do you think?’, ‘I think so’, or ‘Maybe’.

Those of us who in one way or another positively contributed to this rapid economic and material development, directly or indirectly, morally, immorally or amorally, can be justifiably proud of our part in the development process. And Malaysians in general can be equally proud for belonging to this nation of achievers with the ‘Malaysia boleh’ (Malaysia can) spirit. At the least you did not, or maybe tried but failed to, stand in the way of progress. By the way, on the subject of the ‘Malaysia boleh’ slogan, I find it interesting to hear the Americans also using an ‘America can’ slogan around the time Obama came to power. Wonder who followed who.

Now however, the time has come for us Malaysians to look at and address the other facets of our development as a nation. Economic and material well-being is but one facet of the total national being. There are other facets, equally if not more important. Just like wealth is not the most important and certainly not the only attribute by which one judges a person, so it is with nations. Failure to address the non material facets of our development may one day turn us into a nation of wealthy but otherwise despicable people. That prodigious son of Malacca who for so long hemmed the development of that city state to our south, had once launched a campaign for his people to ‘smile’ and used the term ‘despicable’ to describe such people with little else besides material success, a rude people devoid of cultured behaviour and general good manners. How successful he was in this ‘smile’ campaign is of less consequence to us than the question of whether or not we now need a similar campaign for ourselves.

Consider the incidents of dishonesty committed by Malaysians that became big public news:

• Some years ago there was a scandal involving the fixing of English football games and at the centre of it was a Malaysian.

• Some years ago the Bank Bumiputera (way before the more recent merger exercises and name changes) was brought to its knees by its own senior officers.

• Some years earlier, the Bank Rakyat was also affected by wrongdoings committed by its very top officers. Luckily they have recovered and that without name changes and mergers.

• There were a number of occasions when public examination papers were leaked.

• There were published cases of academic plagiarism in our institutes of higher learning.

• There is wide spread trade in materials that infringe on copyright and patent proprietary rights (music, movies, reading materials, computer software, drugs, other fake products passed of as the genuine article) as if there is completely nothing wrong with such acts. Maybe we also have powdered milk containing melamine.

• There are frequent reports, accusations and innuendos of corrupt practices on the part of public officials, all through the ranks.

• There are periodic reports concerning the massive amount of study loans drawn by students that are not subsequently repaid when these students completed their studies and started working. Note that these are supposedly the cream of our youth.


I have also heard stories, of course unverified, of Malaysian students in the United Kingdom leaving huge unpaid credit card and telephone debts when they returned to Malaysia. There were also similar unverified stories of students buying dresses which they then use to go to a party only to return them the next day on the pretext that the items were defective (having deliberately created the defects themselves by removing some stitches). Likewise there were also stories of people buying a sewing machine that they subsequently used to stitch the curtains for their whole house, before returning it on the grounds that the machine did not quite measure up to their expectations.

In the context of a country with a small population like ours, are these incidents then to be considered isolated cases, or are they symptomatic of a basic problem in the fundamental make up of the Malaysian personality. Are these simply rare cases of deviant personalities, or would most Malaysians have behaved similarly had they been in the same place with the same opportunities? An honest assessment of the station we are at would be necessary if we are to initiate an honest development programme in respect of the non material aspects of our national being. I would therefore like to invite fellow Malaysians to honestly rate us as a people. Whatever you are or think you are as a person is not the question here. Give us your opinion about your fellow Malaysians in general. If you are personally dishonest, do you believe that most Malaysians are dishonest anyway and you are therefore perfectly normal? On the other hand, if you are honest, do you believe that most Malaysians are dishonest and you are therefore entirely special?

For this purpose, I believe that we should certainly compare ourselves with those who are among the best in the world, not with those who are among the worst. For example, I have heard that in some places they can actually place newspapers unattended on a bench with an open can next to it and expect people to take a copy and pay for it by putting the money into the open can. Likewise, I have also heard that in some places people commit suicide out of shame if they cannot honour their debts. On the other hand, there are also places where people merrily transfer their assets to trusted proxies, declare bankruptcy to get out of honouring their debts, and proudly continue to parade themselves in chauffeured limousines in front of admiring crowds. There are also places you dare not even park your car, lest all four wheels disappear. Or maybe the whole car will disappear for re-export to the Middle East.

To assist us, I list below some indicative questions. Whereas the questions may on the surface of it appear entirely trivial when talking about development and civilization, they are indicative of the mentality and attitude, and the finesse or the lack of it amongst the people that comprises our society. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the worst possible situation and 1 indicating the best achievable state, rate now your fellow Malaysians.


A) General Behaviour

1) The way Malaysians drive:

• How many of us honk impatiently when we get caught in a traffic jam, even when it is obvious that there is nothing any one could do? Do others than join in to create a ruckus?

• How many of us drive on the outer lane of the expressway (speed limit of 110 kph usually) at 80 kph, busily chatting with our girlfriends or talking on the phone, oblivious to others who may want or need to go faster?

• How many of us hassle other drivers who are already driving as fast as permitted by law while overtaking a string of other vehicles, simply because we want to go even faster than the speed limit? How many of us then blare our horns, flash our lights and start to ‘cucuk’ the car in front (come very close as if to ram their rear ends), instead of allowing them to finish overtaking and move left?

• How many of us weave, overtaking on the left and on the right, when there is a long line of vehicles on the highway, all already travelling with the flow of traffic at around the speed limit? Especially when we drive better cars than the ordinary blokes?

• How many of us just honk impatiently in front of our gates, expecting the Indonesian indentured labour to open the gates for us, even when it is not raining and it is late at night and we live in link houses? Especially when we drive S-class Mercs with loud horns?

• How many of us do not really care if our actions cause others to get into traffic accidents?


2) The way Malaysians dispose rubbish:

• How many of us throw things out of windows of high-rise buildings, not even caring that someone innocent could get seriously injured or even killed?

• How many of us throw rubbish (cigarette buts, plastic bags of fruit peel, empty cans, etc.,) out of car windows, not caring if what we threw out could hit the car behind, besides dirtying the place?

• How many of us litter everywhere, (on the roads, in the parks, on the beaches, etc.,) dirtying and spoiling the beauty of the place that others could otherwise enjoy?

• How many of us throw rubbish into all kinds of things, except the proper rubbish bins, clogging rivers, drains, toilet bowls, urinals, etc., thus inconveniencing others and making a mess of the country in general?

• How many of us who are charged with the responsibility of providing the necessary services and facilities to ensure cleanliness and hygiene criminally neglect our duties, such that it is impossible not to dirty the environment? (If disposal means are inadequate, we cannot just wave a wand to make the refuse disappear. Neither can we avoid generating household refuse.)


3) Other Behavioural Aberrations:

• How often do you find Malaysians jostling instead of voluntarily cuing-up for buses, trains, tickets, anything at all?

• How often do you find young and healthy Malaysian adults nonchalantly sitting on seats reserved for the aged, pregnant and those otherwise impaired, in trains and the like, while those for whom those seats were reserved stand right in front of them?

• How often do you find Malaysians jostling for food, at an Annual General Meeting of a public listed company, as if they had not eaten for weeks, such that the trays of food carried by the waiters are empty even before they reach the serving tables?

• How many cases have you heard of Malaysians treating their housemaids like slaves, not respecting their religious beliefs and physically or sexually abusing them?


B) Honour and Honesty


• How many Malaysian businessmen cheat in their income declaration for tax purposes, do not pay their contributions to the Employee Provident Fund faithfully, and do not transmit onwards the sales/service tax they collect supposedly for the Government?

• How many Malaysian businessmen deal in fake products, pass-off fakes as the genuine articles, use ‘Halal’ labels on their products without observing or even knowing the requirements, and generally have no respect for the proprietary rights of others?

• How many Malaysian businessmen would find the idea of multiple financing a single piece of equipment perfectly acceptable, if he needed to raise money but has no other collateral to offer?

• How many Malaysian salary earners, who pay taxes according to their dues, only do so because they really do not have much of a choice?

• How many Malaysian Muslims avoid paying the Zakat, this being a self-policed lean on their incomes and wealth?

• How many Malaysians would default on their debts, borrow regardless of ability to repay, borrow without at all intending to repay and/or under-declare the value of imported items?

• How many Malaysians would submit false and inflated insurance claims for damage to motor vehicles if they had the opportunity?

• How many Malaysian parents of school-going children ask for free books for their children even when they are not entitled to such subsidies, by under-declaring their incomes?

• How many Malaysian students, at all levels, from the lowest level public examinations to the highest level post-graduate thesis work, and even for their driving tests, would cheat if they had the opportunity? (Bribery, plagiarism, copying, submitting work done by others?)

• How many Malaysian golfers enter competitions with doctored, nursed, or under-declared handicaps, not counting doctored, nursed or under-declared count of strokes? (Forgetting that such ‘handicapped’ games are meant to be social games and not professional tournaments for those not good enough even as amateurs to supplement their personal incomes.)


Well fellow Malaysians, how did you rate us? Can we stand proud as a civilised people?
Or are we a somewhat wealthy but despicable people, on the way to becoming a truly wealthy but despicable people? Or worse, are we a somewhat wealthy but despicable people on the way to becoming a poorer and despicable people, because our wealth is not founded on solid fundamentals? Are we not too much like a landlord dependent on foreign tenants? Well, there will always be more inviting places for the tenants, like in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, or China even. Can our own companies, nurtured as they are either on Government preferential treatment or the strength of clan based cartels, or both, while possessing very little in the way of high value proprietary assets, compete on the open international market of which even our own continually prised open internal market will be merely a part? Even our small grocers have now to compete with the likes of Tesco, Carrefour and the now Hong Kong owned Giant?

By the way, I am someone who thinks that maybe, a Chief Executive who steals Rm5 million from the company but still leaves it with a pre-tax profit RM500 million, is much better for the company, than the Chief Executive who does not steal but generates only RM50 million in pre-tax profits, or worse, incur a loss of RM50 million. Did any of our Chief Executive steal? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I do not know. That is the absolute truth. I do know however, that if the able Chief Executive who stole in the example above had not stolen, the hypothetical company would have recorded much more than RM500 million in pre-tax profits and not just RM505 million. How come? There would have been much less stealing down the line under an able Chief Executive who does not himself steal. On the other hand, the less than able Chief Executive in the above hypothetical example would not even realise if the assets of the company were being stolen and sold to competitors by those closest to him. And God forbid if the less than able Chief Executive above also steals. There must be places in the world where this happens. I wonder where. But I pray that we will never have the misfortune of being governed by a party led by such a less than able administrator who is at the same time less than absolutely honest, with his only strength residing in oratory and charisma.

I leave you to ponder the significance of this last paragraph.