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| Source: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/cat_radio_phones.htm |
Here are few of the things I hear over and over again regarding the problems we as Malaysians are to ourselves and others. And my points turn to possible reasons as to why we behave as such
We are bad drivers.
I love how this topic will send your else-placid mind into a sudden frenzy. Every day we encounter the most unusual of drivers, like nobody is more educated and more civilized than you, and nobody knows decent common sense like you do. And what happens next? You do the exact same because 'since everyone else are doing it why can't I?'
Here are some reasons why we have so many bad and rude drivers in town. Rude drivers actually hate driving. They dread the moments when they have to drive to and from work every day, but they do it because they're not given options. Once they get on board, they want to get home as soon as possible. That is why they appear rude. Fact is, they're more often in a panic because they only see chaos in traffic congestions and that makes them very uneasy. Do they have a choice of taking the public transportation (kindly refer to my previous post titled Rapid Decline)?
Other reasons include extremely irritating weather, bad traffic and trees that love to grow right in front of road signs.
Malaysian Standard Timing?
Most of the events that require attendance on time must be done at 7:30pm for some reason, in the middle of rush hour. How do you expect someone to leave office at 6, go home, look good for your event and reach on time?
Then there's a problem with two traffic lights that can never synchronize with each other, making it impossible to traverse a road with 8 lights without stopping at all 8 lights. And also highways that are always built in Ring formats (eg: Outter Ring Road, Middle Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, KESAS, LDP) which means people will have to make big circles around so many townships when traveling.
What is worst, when you define this constant lateness so officially you allow everyone to think that it is okay to be late all the time. Standard mah!
Double Parking
Most developments are supposed to have a balanced ratio between number of shops/houses and number of parking lots. Developers see shops/houses as money and parking lots as waste of money. So they negligently under-provide parking, which will also increase its value when they wanna sell out the parking facilities since lack of supply increases demand and therefore price to attain this commodity. Then we have the crappiest of public transport system in the known world.
Some of you guys can wait until the traffic is not so bad to do your shopping and banking. For the rest of us, we don't get much choice, so we double park.
Our Bad Ethics?
Seriously, have you been To China? India? Indonesia? What kind of bad ethics do we have that even the 'civilized and supreme' whites don't? We drive in the emergency lane and get it clogged up which ultimately prevents Ambulances from reaching the people who are causing the traffic jam in the first place? It happens in the most 'white' of places too.
I am not being racist here, but we have to stop worshiping the westerners and think they will not steal, kill, rob, rape, litter, spit in public and drive like complete assholes, because they do! In fact they do them more professionally than most of us.
Know Our Festivals?
I am Chinese, suppose to be a Buddhist, and I don't even know how many birthdays Guan Yin has in a year. Seriously, not knowing about festivals celebrated by other ethnic people does not make us any less Malaysian. If you like to play the Blame Game, point fingers to the education system. I believe it is crucial that all of these should be properly taught in schools, if you think it more important than Hang Tuah Lima Sekawan.
And if you haven't noticed, we have a tonne too many holidays a year. I say this because I think holidays are detrimental to the efficiency of the economy, and our economy runs at snail speed mostly. There is a history behind Hari Gawai and Wesak Day and I bet a lot of us have forgotten, if we were ever even educated in them. And do you know Deepavali is not the Tamil New Year?
And in case you don't know, there are 16 festivals that Malaysians celebrate nationally. I can't even remember 16 phone numbers in my Contacts list.
Only Talk About Food?
Why can't we talk about other things? Why must we introduce ourselves as the Food People? Why can't we talk about beaches and mountains and Proton Colliders (not associated to the car maker whatsoever) and Derivatives of DYs and DXs? Of movements of the tectonic plates, and bonds and swaps and futures? I don't remember ever saying Hi to a friend and asking if he/she has eaten, unless I was hungry and wanted company.
Snobbish Society
Why don't we help others in need? Why don't we stop at the side of the roads and help a fellow Malaysian in need of a tyre change? Why don't we talk to each other when waiting in line in banks? Why do some of us older Malaysian try to cut queue whenever possible in banks?
Because most of the time the people in need are out to scam and rob us out of desperation, we have too much worry in our heads and have no mood to engage in conversations with strangers, and most banks don't have special lanes for Senior Citizens despite advertisements.
Are we all also racist?
As far as I know racism in this country has always been sparked by certain people to keep the people fighting with each other while they get what they want: power and money. We are beyond tolerance; we celebrate each other's festivals, adopt children of different ethnicity, work in multi-ethnic companies, and respect each other's beliefs very well. No problems.
What actually makes us Malaysians?
Color? Race? Religion?
Or the fact that we are all born in the same country, speak the same rojak language, and eat various versions of food we don't remember its origin? Who else in the world would know what Gostan meant? Can't we be Malaysian and have annoying fake Australian accents? Can't we be Malaysian and not know how to be early for appointments?
We are a globalised society, and our involvement in the world can not be underestimated. I would really appreciate that radio stations, in their feeble attempt to promote this mythical creature known as 1Malaysia, at least associate us with a little more pride. The world can tune in to our radio stations. Remember that when you insult and embarrass your fellow country-people.
By judging ourselves so quickly and negatively, we show the world we are a very shallow society and we have too much hate for each other. Let this end shall we.
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