"As a nation, we have no shame". Please Do Not Say "We". Sometimes You Have To Say 'I'.

 

OutSyed The Box

Thursday, April 11, 2024

"As a nation, we have no shame". Please Do Not Say "We". Sometimes You Have To Say 'I'.

 

Haris Hussain
3 February 2024

"Malaysia, a nation with no shame?"

As a nation, we have no shame.

We are a nation that celebrates convicted criminals, turning them into cause célèbres.

We are a nation where convicted felons get five-star preferential treatment, and are invited to speak at business forums after being charged with criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering.

We are a nation where politicians facing a mountain of charges can still hold office, are escorted by police outriders – not to prison – but to attend state functions and to shamelessly welcome visiting heads of state.  (OSTB : Dont forget the Indian terrorist mentors.)

We are a nation that shamelessly expects, and doles out handouts, creating a culture of unfettered entitlement that spans every facet of Malaysian life – from business, to education, to illegal street racing.

We are a nation that rewards bad behaviour, and embraces slogans extolling the virtues of shamelessness. We celebrate thieves and thievery. One slogan that for a while became the national mantra of sorts loosely translated to “What Is There To Be Ashamed of, My Dear Boss?”

We are a nation that rewards mediocrity. We excel at coming up with excuses, justifying the unjustifiable, sugar-coating the harsh realities of the outcome (football, hockey, badminton, take your pick), and propping up the losers with hollow “Attaboys” and “Kita sudah buat yang terbaik demi bangsa dan negara”.

It doesn’t detract from the fact that we can’t seem to do anything right.

Malaysia’s disastrous outings in both the men’s and women’s Olympic hockey qualifiers recently were hard to stomach, but the results were not unexpected. Once a hockey powerhouse, Malaysia’s national teams have now been reduced to a shadow of their former self, instilling paralysing fear and abject terror only in an opponent’s girls’ Under-12 team.

Our national football team, carrying the fierce moniker of ‘Harimau Malaya’ came home to a heroes’ welcome – and an additional funding of RM5 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, on top of the RM10 million given by the government in 2022 – this, after being mauled and torn apart 4-0 by Jordan, and losing 1-0 to Bahrain in the AFC Asian Cup 2023 group matches. Go figure.

When it drew 3-3 with South Korea and was sent home packing, one would think that Harimau Malaya had qualified for the World Cup, going by the euphoria that swept the nation, and the headlines in the local press, which had the audacity to put Malaysia on a par with football juggernauts Brazil and Ghana.

We are a nation that takes pride in circumventing and beating the system, in cutting corners, and using back doors, loopholes, and technicalities, to get what we want. Some even go to the extent of poking holes through the roof. All, while screaming about the sanctity of the rule of law. Shameless.

A system that rewards incompetence and mediocrity will do nothing to spur us as a nation, to greater heights. It only reinforces the belief that there’s no need to excel, since even those placing dead last will be hailed as heroes. You get the medals, cash rewards, and all the accolades simply for showing up.

This only breeds a culture of entitlement, evident by the number of financial aid handouts the government has had to dish out under a litany of creative and catchy-sounding names over the years. A rose by any other name is still a cash handout. The end result is the social engineering of a people who just sit and wait – no need to work – for the next round of disbursements. Malaysia’s ‘subsidy mentality’ shows no sign of being consigned to the scrapheap of history anytime soon.

What have we become? What used to be right is now wrong, and what is wrong, “kita boleh ejas”. When motorists refuse to yield to ambulances and emergency services vehicles with the regularity with which it occurs in this country, you know that Malaysia’s ‘collective conscience’ is dead and buried, its epitaph a sad indictment of the true state of the nation.

Facts and evidence no longer matter. What matters is the tensile strength of your ‘cable’. As a nation, we are hopelessly rudderless, our moral compass completely askew. And that, is a crying shame.

The post "Malaysia, a nation with no shame?" appeared first on Twentytwo13.

 

My Comments :

A very apt and precise description of what is going on in the country. Club of Doom. 

This is a very important article. It is an acknowledgement of failure. The first step towards correcting your wrongs is to admit that you have failed. Once you can admit that you have failed that will (or should) lead to more honesty. It should lead to more self criticism and self awareness. 

That in turn will lead to a search for the remedy. Or rather it should. But that too has its own threats and boobytraps. For example it could lead to a search for  remedies through "religion" - another rabbit hole. Or hell hole.

HOWEVER ..  . . I have pointed out many times before in this Blog and elsewhere that the "problems" that we face in Malaysia are not major. The problems that we face are minor and easily fixable.  Sometimes these so called problems are insignificant to a ridiculous extent. I will give you an example here.

Hence this sentence  "As a nation, we have no shame" is not fully accurate.

The problems that we face in this country are not 'universal'. The problems that we see in the country are too, too often unique to one main race and one main religion.

To highlight this problem, let me use the 'its not listed here' approach.

Lets take inter-racial and inter-religious relations. Please include a vice-versa:

• The Dayaks in Sarawak have no issues with the Indians or the Chinese.
• The Dusuns and Kadazans in Sabah have no issues with the Dayaks.
• The Indians have no issues with the Orang Asli or the Chinese. 
• The Chinese have no issues with the Orang Asli, the Dayaks or the Dusuns. 
• Everybody just goes about their business.
• This is also Malaysia - about 50% of Malaysia.
  
• The Hindus have no issues with the Buddhists.
• The Buddhists have no issues with the Taoists.
• Both the Taoists and Buddhists have no issues with the Christians.
• They just go about their own religions. 
• This is also Malaysia - about 50% of Malaysia.  

Can you see who is not listed here? That is the problem.

The Gomen Budget (2024) of RM394 Billion depends on about RM308 Billion of tax revenue or 78% of the total Budget. The huge bulk of the tax revenue obviously comes from taxpayers who are productive and hardworking people. Otherwise they will not be able to generate the sales and revenues which contribute so much tax revenue for the gomen. These are the people who obviously do not depend on subsidies and free handouts.

One expert recently said that in the past three years 96 out of 97 new public listed companies were non Muslim owned. That is 98.96%. This means that 98.96% of the corporate taxes collected from this group of 97 newly listed companies are from the non Muslims. 

These are definitely NOT the 'we have no shame' people. These are people who work very hard.

The non-Muslim business class have little love for the 'shameless' classes but they are business people. They have to be practical. They owe money to suppliers, they have bank loans to pay, monthly salaries to pay, rental for the factories and offices and they import stuff by the shiploads from overseas. All this needs hard work and money. They have to pay for everything.

But sitting over all these are the shameless classes who dont know anything about business, who dont give a shit about almost anything and who  dont care about anyone else except themselves. 

And of course they want their cut. For free. 
So the amoral corrupt the morals of everyday people.  

 

So please do not say "we" have problems. I disagree. 
You must be more honest and say 'I'. "I have a problem".

Here is one example of problem solving that I mentioned above. This 'problem has been solved' provides solid evidence for what I said earlier - that the problems we face in this country are not major. The problems that we face are minor and easily fixable.  Sometimes these so called problems are insignificant to a ridiculous extent. 

The example I have is education. From kindergarten to university the government education system in the country (other than the vernacular schools) is a shambles. The other cesspool that has been created are the religious schools - gomen and private. No one knows what type of confused minds are being nurtured in these religious schools. 

What is the fix? What is the solution?  

Thankfully we allowed private education and vernacular education. From kindergarten to universities we have private education that is contributing so much to our economy. 

There are now over 100,000 non-Chinese children attending Chinese vernacular schools. This means 200,000 non Chinese parents feel that the Chinese schools are a better option for their children. Chinese schools are renowned for their emphasis on discipline, tons of homework, Maths and Science subjects and now also English. (However the Tamil schools outscore ALL other schools in Maths and Science). The enrolment of non-Chinese in Chinese schools is increasing rapidly and it may double in the next few years.

Chinese schools must prepare for this ever higher enrolment of non Chinese students.

Then we have the private schools - private boarding schools, international schools etc whose medium of instruction is in English. The government run boarding schools also teach in English. There are also private 'Islamic' schools which prepare students for the British O and A levels or the Singapore syllabus who also teach in English. (Then there is also the other highly successful private schooling system that I still will not mention).

Finally we have the private universities which also teach in English. All these private educational schools and universities which teach in English are far more successful than the gomen schools whose main medium of instruction is Malay.

Graduates from private universities are rarely unemployed. On the other hand the over 70,000 (figure is debateable, it could be higher) unemployed graduates are mostly from the gomen universities.

So here is the problem and its solution. The problem is in the gomen's education system and the solution is in the private education system.

Just make a simple, honest comparison.

Graduates of gomen education system (primary, secondary, tertiary) versus graduates of vernacular and private education system (primary, secondary, tertiary). 

 

Where are they five years after finishing their education?
Where are they 10 years after finishing their education?  
How many have jobs? 
What is their per capita income?
How many are on drugs?
How many are on subsidies and free handouts? Or gomen / GLC jobs?
How many are in the 'shameless' category?

 
Just stop following the system that has failed, failed and failed.
Just follow the system that has been proven to be succesful.

The solution is so simple.

Please do not say "we" have problems. I disagree. 
You must be more honest and say 'I'. "I have a problem".

Because other people do not seem to have as many problems.