Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Malaysian Hypocrisy

Malaysians apparently voted for more democracy, transparency, improved human rights, better judiciary, ACA and Police. Time and time again, we get bombarded by the same argument on why BN lost 5 states and lost their two third majorities in the parliament.

Some had used the same arguments into books and laughing all the way to the bank.

Normal wage earner like me begs to differ. If we look at the Merdeka Independent Survey, the bread and butter issues are the main worry for man in the street and not transparency, democracy etc. Only armchair analyst, opposition politicians and their supporters kept harping on saying that these elements that really influenced public to vote for the opposition.

How many people are affected by these (Judiciary, Police, ISA, Accountability , Transparency etc) on a day to day basis?

If these analysts are correct, then it would be also correct to say Malaysians are generally hypocrites. Do not get angry, please read on, you will realise why.

1. Malaysians love to park illegally everywhere. You can always see cars of all kinds parked and at times double parked illegally and the owners are in a shopping mall, lunch, supper, outside a bar etc. Malaysian don't mind paying more than 10 Ringgit for everything else but parking. The also forget that they are denying the RIGHT of way for others when they double park.

2. Malaysians pay their Astro bills, club memberships, fitness/slimming centre bills on time but delay paying assessment and quit rents. Malaysians don't bother about the RIGHT of local councils to collect their due.

3. Malaysians don’t know the difference between credit card and debit card. Most Malaysians spend what they do not have and yet complain, more often than not that the government is not doing anything.

4. Malaysians don't mind throwing rubbish everywhere except near their homes, then run to the nearest politician and claim that local councils are not doing their job. Malaysians don’t mind to deny the RIGHT of others to have a clean environment.

5. Malaysians don't mind demonstrating in public place disrupting businesses and movement of others. They don't mind to deny the RIGHTS of others to earn a decent living and move around in public places without disruption.

6. Malaysians jump to the defense of their children when they are disciplined by teachers in schools. The don't care about the RIGHT of teachers to discipline their children, who are with the teachers more than the parents nowadays.

7. Malaysians complain about higher fuel price but still line up to collect the rebates.

8. Malaysians don't mind paying bribes and yet support the call for Police reforms.

9. Malaysians don't mind believing half truths and rumors about anybody without thinking about hearing the other side of story, thus denying the RIGHTS of the aggrieved party to defend themselves.

10. Malaysians don't mind cutting the queue while taking the bus, trains and open houses, denying the RIGHTS of others who line up properly.

11. Malaysians talk about equal opportunity but practise discrimination when it comes to who they do business with, promotions in work place, job recruitments, denying the RIGHTS of other who fit the bill or have the necessary requirements.

12. Malaysians built anything everywhere illegally and cry that they are oppressed and discriminated and they do not care about the RIGHTS of the landowners.

13. Malaysians loves everything subsidised and complains when government exercise their RIGHTS to withdraw the same and redistribute it elsewhere.

14. Malaysians don't mind taking the short cut route for any dealings with officials or government although they realise that they may deny the RIGHTS of others who may have their request/transactions waiting in the queue.

15. Malaysians didn’t mind enjoying the prosperity during the Mahathir years and claims otherwise now, when he’s no longer in office.

16. Malaysians don’t mind under declaring when they fill the Income Tax form denying the RIGHTS of government to collect what is due, which could have helped another Malaysian elsewhere. Yet they clamor for accountability and transparency from government.

17. Malaysians moan about the lack of transparency and accountability by the government but do not ask the same from the Opposition Parties. eg, have any opposition leaders ever declared and published their assets.

18. Most Malaysians work properly two-third or even half of their working time (even though they claim to work late) but expect civil servants to be super efficient.

19. Malaysians don't mind help to destroy the environment to get hold of their dream property and yet complain and threaten the government with civil suit when another developer starts a project nearby, using the excuse of environment, safety and population density, something that we never heard of or concerned about before.

20. Malaysians don't mind nominating and voting in someone who can't speak Bahasa Malaysia, someone who's only expertise is in stopping Phantom Voters, someone who's an expert in double meaning, a sex-offender, someone convicted for corruption and abuse of power, and yet complain about the quality of elected representatives and debates in the parliament and state assemblies.

21. Malaysians seeks compensation three or four times the value when they are asked to make way for public development projects and yet complain about lack of accountability when government does the same eg, MAS and Maybank purchase of BII.

22. Malaysians don't mind spending on unnecessarily but complain when they perceive government or local councils are doing the same.

23. Malaysians complain about wastage of taxpayers money by government but the fact is only a fraction of the population pay tax. A large section either under-declares their tax statement or do not declare at all. So much about transparency and accountability.

24. Malaysians don't mind spending tones of money on sms on the favourite reality tv show but complain when the toll rates are raised by few cents.

25. Malaysians actually don't pay fines on time waiting for discounts, but complain when their pay, claims or refunds are a day late.

26. Malaysians are happy with the government when they (govt) announce free water but complain when there are no water, mainly due to their own wastages over the time.

27. Malaysians complain when they are not covered under any scheme of rebates for free books, free electricity (eg recent budget- for bills below RM 10.00) and exemptions under any other social Safety net schemes that are meant to benefit the needy.

28. Malaysians complain about RM 300.00 passport fee but don't mind paying thousands for their holidays.

29, Malaysians complain about high food prices but don't mind wasting food and drinks at home and public functions when it is free.

30. Malaysians don't mind paying RM 10 for coffee but complain when sugar price goes up by 10 cents.

There are many more. In summary, we should look at ourselves in the mirror. Before we ask for a better deal from the government and politicians in terms of accountability, transparency and good governance, we should be doing the same.

18 comments:

Rakesh Kumar said...

Good one. I admit that I am one of the culprit too.

You have just listed out great many subjects for my future blogging. And subjects for the local inept cartoonist Kee (The Star) to beat to death in his comic strips.

Anonymous said...

Balan,

Keep up the good work. It is refreshing for once to see a non-malay blogger not to spin an oppossition agenda but rather to look at it from a Malaysian issue.

Anonymous said...

Bro,

This is a very good article. The conclusion is Malaysian are really hypocrite. Keep up the good work.

Syahrul

Anonymous said...

Right on all counts, bro.

I once sat on our residents' committee. Complaints, complaints, complaints. Come time for election of new office-bearers, we thot we'd ask those with so many grouses to stand. Guess what? The ones who complained the loudest say "no lah, i got vry heavy work schedule lah, no time lah..." So you see.

Yep we love whining.

Tusitala

Anonymous said...

Balan,

Hahahaha. How true your observations are. There's an intrinsic reason for why *some* Malaysians are behaving this way and I have posted my suspicions in postings in other blogs (JebatMustDie, DemiNegara etc) but suffice it to say simply that one would always feel an inherent ...kiasu ... to all things constitutional around him as long as he (deliriously) believes he is better than the people in his surroundings.

Now the reverse is also hysterically true sometimes. Leman, a friend of mine, tells me this true story of how his father would always sit "respectfully" at the back of the trishaw of beca-driver T. Husin, and never to "lunjurkan kaki" while on the beca because, as he says, it shows disrespect to a royalty: T. Husin is a Tengku many-times removed from one state's royalty, you see. Hehehe. Isn't that hilarious? If the guy's an aristocrat, what on earth is he doing cycling for 50 sen per mile? Ah well, such is life. Maybe he missed that NEP thing, no?

Malaysians are also good in another thing, Balan: being spectators. If an accident happens on the highway, they'd queue up to watch that unfortunate event, even cause traffic jams by it but noooooooo... they WON'T help. Well they might want to jot down 4D numbers, it is true but help-wise, nope.

Last year, there was an accident involving a mamat delivering pizza on his motorbike and a chinese girl and her boyfriend driving a Toyota Vios as she attempted to drive out from an intersection. It was obvious then (I was at the scene) that girl was at fault if you consider who had the right-of-way: she was from a position of zero-velocity and the motorbike was cruising along the straight road already with a certain speed when her sudden turn was made, oblivious to the little two-wheeled thing coming from the right. Of course you can guess who had the most damage and physical hurt, irrespective of how with vehemence the girl insisted that mamat was on the wrong side.

Anyway what I wanted to narrate was what happened next: the accident happened in front of a private medical institution and it was during perhaps end of classes. Now almost all of these students (ni yang nak gelak ni) have these stethoscopes around their necks when they come to class, you see. Doesn't matter which semester, which subjects they learn but they make sure that they wear them walking around whenever they get out of class. Well in all probability they'd tanggalkan the stets away and keep em while IN class, perhaps, but to wear them while walking to the mamak stall in front or elsewhere they must, reminding the world of who they are and what they will one day become and so please, folks, lalu sikit and give way. Shoo! Shoo!

Our little lady of accident was one of these students, see. Anyway when I saw I was the only one stooping down to help poor old mamat with his bloody face, warped cycle rim and a jambalaya-mixed atmosphere of pepperoni pizza, sweat, blood and petrol, I shouted at the bystanders all around; "YOU PEOPLE WALK AROUND WITH STETHOSCOPES AROUND YOUR NECKS AND YET CAN'T HELP AN ACCIDENT VICTIM? WHAT KIND OF DOCTORS WILL YOU ALL BE?!!"

And poofff... the crowd egged away and disappears. Frankly, I was myself amazed at myself for that little vociferation of mine until I suspected that it had equaled in rank with other great orations in history like Tariq bin Ziyad's motivational speech on the peak of Mount Gibraltar, or the fiery one by the leader of the Sicarii in Masada in 70 A.D. that resulted in 960 jews to commit suicide. I even went so far as to suspect that I was actually good! Hehehe.

Anyway, to cut the story short, I still haven't figured out up till today why those "would-be" doctors and other bystanders did not help fellow Malaysian Mamamt at that time: was it because, like me, Mamat is a malay, or was it because such selfishness is an ingrained trait in some of us Malaysians?

And ponder on I must.

Apocryphalist

Vijay said...

You are very observant. Good bro. I like it very much.

But we can't generalized things. Not everything done by everybody.

Not everybody have thousands of ringgit to go for holiday.

Not everybody have opportunity to go for functions to waste food. Many are still having one day meal and some just salt and rice. You have to explore more brother.

Not everybody sends sms for fun and entertainment. I top up RM30 for 3 months. Thats is it. Only important call and sms. I believe many are same like me.

Not everybody gets fine. But many minister/mp does get fines. Role model to younger generation???

Not everybody have money to spend unnecessarily. Many Sarawakian and Sabahan in jungle don't have money to spend. Many Asli people who are hindus living water from drainage or small polluted river. They dont have extra money to spend. Orang Asli hindu? Yess they exist and many of us not aware of them.

Not everybody...the list goes on. ;)

Why there is some with leg and some without? Some born perfect/healthy, but some are mentally retarded and physically disabled???

Can we say God are hypocrites too?



Salam Reformasi.

gLeNn said...

did you write this all by yourself?
Impressive! hehe...

All truths...

I guess no matter what we say we are bound to have commit at least of these. We just want everything on the cheap or find something to complain about. hehe...
But only a true Malaysian can fulfill almost all the above... hehe =)

HeroTamil said...

Hi...first time posting here.

Hope you dont mind my handle,but using this for a very long time. Disrepect is no intention.I am a malay but i do love watching tamilmovies..hindi movies give me the creeps. Thus got my handle..

Love a reading your articles.

But i do hope to answer VJ's comment.

Actually our friend here is stating the fact about MOST of us, the RAKYAT in general.

I do hope you understand the meaning of the word MOST.

And i do not see any political agenda here.

hehehehe.. and y bring GOD in this article of our own hypocrasy, bro??

Salam Muhibbah.

enche treq said...

mostly i agreed...
its the nature of human being to see just others fault and think they always right..

that free electricity is bullshit...
my grandparents left their house for a month..-only use elctricity for the refrigerator...-bills is rm18..

Sihan said...

Yes. I finally found a blog i always want to read. This is a very good article and this blog is very neutral (in fact is the most neutral I have read recently).

Your comment in one of my friends' blog spurred my interest. HINDRAF in the first place is not even legal.

I definitely don't share the sentiment of Hindraf. Most of the issues are exaggerated in the memorandum. Eg. the ethnic cleansing issue. This is a very serious allegation.


And i certainly don't agree with the how Hindraf members get their children involved in road rally and demonstrations and the latest Open House brouhahas. How can they forcefully drag the children to the road rally?Any sensible parents will not do that.

And about this post. Malaysians are not hypocrites. They are just very ignorant. They don't look at the bigger picture.

One more example of how ignorant Malaysians can be...

Malaysians read RajaPetra's and claim that they are reading a very neutral blog.

Neutral? Raja Petra is Anwar's best friend. How neutral can he be?

Again, I'm not pro-BN. I'm just pro-people.

Anonymous said...

Hi Balan,

Nice article. Refreshing. IMO human are hypocritical in nature. Only the "enlighten" one who are able to shed away, not all, but as much as possible the hypocritical behaviour.

You will also notice that in the society, usually, the most vocal one is the one who is the most hypocrite.

Anonymous said...

good observation.. how very true, but also very sad...

burujerdi said...

Salam muhibbah,

There was not a word from what you said was untrue. Looking forward to your next posting.

Cheguman said...

Balan,
I hate you, Balan. But I'm also Malaysian. So, it's one of Malaysian Hypocrasy.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Dear Balan,

it is refreshing to read your blog which I strongly believe that all Malaysians need to digest at this point of time. You a very wise man. I'm a Malay who have many Indian friends. I used to work in plantations and I remember sharing lots of sweet memories with Indian friends, but now the situation changes.

Many of the friends have change their ways of thinking, the have been cheated by those people who hungry for power. Many of our friendships which we have built over the years went cold. So unlucky for me and all the Malaysians.

Actually there is nothing wrong with our community. The problem is when certain quarters start to exploit these race barriers to boost their political careers.

We as Malays, NEVER rate other races as second class citizen. We are ever willing to share a lot of things with them. Until these power hungry people came and spoil every thing, including the human bonds which have been built for many years.

It is very unfortunate that many of people around us believe those liars, despite enjoying every breath that we have here.

We have live in Independent Malaysia for 51 years and our life (of all races) have greatly improved. And today simply because of some trouble makers, we are destroying what we have enjoyed and at the same time sacrificing our children future!? Thanks to those IDIOTS.

Cucu Tok Selampit said...

Cucu Tok Selampit,

Very nice analysis Bro. Malay proverbs do say, one finger we point to others, the the other three are pointing back to ourselves.

Regards.

Anonymous said...

malaysians can sometimes act like imbeciles even when they are in a different country. It's really embarassing sometimes just looking at the way they act. I realized some don't even care about what other people think about them. Talk loudly in public, throw rubbish everywhere, don't obey road rules, cheating in exams and make up lies, those are just tip of the iceberg. I don't get it is it the upbringing? society? leaders?

Anonymous said...

Umm.... no need to specify so much Mr. Balan... 3 words sum it all..

"THIRD WORLD COUNTRY"

These are the characteristics of a third world country where change cannot be made because of race / religion is mixed with politics..

Stop dreaming everyone ok? There is no hope... they say if we don't like it, "KALAU TAK SUKA, KELUAR DARI MALAYSIA".. so i LISTEN to them, SAVE MY MONEY, WORK HARD HAVING TWO JOBS.. and will leave in 5 months time.. Stop dreaming for hope and change until another 50 years.. America took 100 years for a black to be a President.. in Malaysia, u have to take another 50 years X 3 (third world mentality) .. which adds up to 150 more years for change.. all the best la..

...i won't wait.. i'm not young anymore..

p/s sorry for being so pessimistic..