Typical Malaysians

Image by ~ezs via Flickr

Nowadays, there are many awful comments about Malaysians. It’s coming from some of the quarters in our society who are deeply concerned with the direction of this beloved country. The relationship between the races are not encouraging at the moment. Most of political parties want to be champion of their races and on few occasions have made racist remarks. There are scholars, journalists, writers and intellectuals who also have pointed out their opinion on how to resolve the prolonged dilemma.

There are several taglines like “Bangsa Malaysia”, “Malaysian Malaysia”, “Pendatang”, “Ketuanan Melayu”, “Hak Istimewa”, “Bangsa Kelas Kedua” and others which do not help to mend the sensitive nature of the whole situation. You may see that nothing is wrong on the surface, but actually in reality, it is not really that good.

Having said that, there are bad attributes amongst the Malaysians that can absolutely be evidenced regardless of race and generally practiced by all. These are some of typical idiosyncratic habit or behavior of Malaysians which are distasteful, undignified and disgusting that I can think of :-

a) cannot keep the public toilets clean;
b) jump queue during traffic jam/ use emergency lane on the highway;
c) speak so loud on the handphone at public place;
d) spit, throw rubbish and cigarettes butt indiscreetly;
e) do thing at the very last minute (for ex: mykad);
f) scuffle for food during festive open house;
g) are willing to queue (long stretch during festive season) at toll plaza
rather than using Touch n Go or Smart Tag;
h) destroy public phones, bus stops, rubbish dump, lifts and etc (vandalism and graffiti);
i) using degrading label on races;
j) hardly say “excuse me”, “thank you” or even smile to strangers;
k) being courteous or respectful towards foreigners or tourists more than to fellow citizen;
l) treat VIP or Datuks excessively;
m) so difficult to offer seat in public transportation to the elderly,
pregnant woman and less fortunate person;
n) talking on handphone in cinema;
o) employing foreign workers at restaurants who cannot even understand the order/ unable to communicate;
p) sub-con the business to foreigners using the license given by authority like in Chow Kit;
q) Mat Rempit, Bohsia and others; and
r) -please be free to add on-.

Nevertheless, I am hoping that Malaysians will eventually triumph and be united for the sake of our country and would like to end with a quotation from the great Mahatma Gandhi :

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean, if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”