When I was growing up, I remember a very famous idea that was used by fellow classmates and me whenever we're composing essays about degradation of moral values among Malaysians. Our teachers would tirelessly remind us of this idea again and again:
Kemasukan budaya kuning / influence of western values
This is how everything bad that was going on at that time was justified and maybe, just maybe, the same idea is still propagating in schools nowadays. The kids are taught to blame nearly everything on western values. Name whatever form of moral issues we're facing nowadays, and it is highly likely that most of Malaysians -who have been brought up with the idea of 'kemasukan budaya kuning' will point to the west and say "hey, that's where this is coming from".
But friends...I've gone to the west. Some of you who are reading this are still there -in the west, and you who have experienced or are still experiencing life in the west would surely, I think, corroborate the statement that I'm about to make.
-The Mat Sallehs are generally more polite than Malaysians-
I have found from my previous experience that it is easier to find a polite Mat Salleh (yang kononnya berbudaya kuning jahat ini) than a polite Malaysian.
To find rude Malaysians...ah, this one is easy. Try going to virtually any counters (to pay bills etc) or try entering an area that is patrolled by Malaysian guards, I can give you more examples I think, but I'll refrain and will stop here.
Adieu~
4 comments:
dude, so true la. i seriously think it's unfair to put the blame of our moral decadence to whatever culture that we thought does not belong to us.
this is as much as saying ' globalisasi punca keruntuhan akhlak' . huh? what?
i wanted to write about it, but i couldnt find time. but since u made it a point, i just add up here that we love blaming others for whatever bad influences we adopted/adapted.
hmm. salah sendiri la kalo tak berbudi bahasa dan tak bepekerti mulia, ye tak?
Wisdom. That's the cure for our Malaysian Rudeness Malady.
Ideas/concepts/values/perspectives of both positive and negative nature are all around us, west, east, southeast, wherever. I think the key is to be wise and prudent enough to be able to differentiate.
If one is not wise enough, then try to cultivate wisdom. Alas, (this is my humble opinion only) our general population don't really care.
Couldn't agree more. We Malaysians are good at, almost suscpetible to, picking up those so-called western values, no doubt. But the only values we seem to pick up are bad ones, or maybe we tend to corrupt whatever good values we piked up. All those 'nilai-nilai murni' we learned in school are just something we regurgitate in order to pass exams.
Here in the 'evil west', courtesy is apparently as natural as breathing. I've seen bus drivers who (politely) fired off a passanger for being rude t oa fellow passanger. Whenever I encounter some rudeness it really sticks to mind because it's such a rare occurance.
I'm not one of those ppl our society so love to call 'kebaratan'. I really believe we have an abundace of good manners inherent to our cultures, just like any other culture.
It's just sad that very few of us practice them anymore.
ever heard of this?
mat salehs are warm outside cold inside and asians are vice versa.
my grandma kalau bercakap macam nak bergaduh but actually she's just having a conversation with my atok sedara.
but it's true lah, mat salehs are generally more polite.
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