Why Malaysia is not moving forward?
Yesterday I had a good conversation with one of my friends. He’s given me another perspective on why Malaysia isn’t moving, and his answer is we’re not moving just because we’re not moving.
By Lance Wong
Like many other guys would do, we went to ‘yamcha’ (have tea) and chat from the earth to the sky. Then of course, we talked about Malaysia’s development and started comparing ourselves with South Korea and Taiwan, the countries with the same development potential in the 90s.
I said, we can’t compare ourselves with those countries because Taiwan and S.Korea don’t have issues like racial problems, unfair treatment, favoritism policies and so on. Though I’ve given numerous reasons why Malaysia is lacking behind, my friend said: “Yes, these are existing problems that we should look into and put an end to it if possible; but these are not the excuses why Malaysia is lacking behind.”
Taiwan had/has the same corruption problems as in Malaysia. Research indicated that the use of ‘black gold’ (money politics) was very serious and it directly calls the nation for a change in government. That’s when Mr Chen Shui-Pien (of opposition) took over the government and put an end to the Kuo Min Tang (KMT) tenure over the years. However, Mr Chen was involved in corruption after all (prior to this, are we sure DSAI is not the second Mr Chen?), but still their country runs progressively and built brands like Acer, Asus which influence the global IT market. So, corruption is not necessarily the main factor to pull a country like Malaysia down.
Unfair treatment. Let’s just focus on one; education. It appears that Malaysia favors a particular race for overseas education scholarships, and this is truly happening. Then what? Are other races denied from pursuing tertiary education? No, we all have the opportunities to go for "almost the same level of education" as compared to those who have the opportunities to study abroad. Nowadays, most of the people who received JPA scholarships aren’t enrolled into some top class universities like Harvard or MIT but ‘second tier’ universities which may match the ‘level’ of Universiti Malaya. Is it that useless to obtain a local degree after all? Don’t feel resentment because of this issue but focus on what you can contribute with your local university degree. (This is rather a subjective opinion, no offence to those who pursue a foreign degree).
As you can see, some races have been resenting all the time that they have not been given equal opportunities in this and that. The point is, I can see that those who have ‘average’ qualities tend to focus on resentment rather than improvement. But those who are really ‘capable’ tend to serve other countries rather than in Malaysia because they feel ‘more appreciated’. Please stop sighing and use your talents to contribute to our dear Malaysia.
Apart from the brain drain I mentioned, the main issue is Malaysians have lost the focus of what is important - changing ourselves. And we have a bunch of ‘holier than thou’ bloggers and commentators who know nothing except how to bash the government without seeing themselves as the ones who bribe cops and resent unproductively or just not give constructive suggestions. I’m not trying to show that I’m better than the rest of you but trying to bring a message that we all can learn together, so that we can do something good for the country. Remember, we’re not moving just because we’re not moving … including me.
Finally, I’d like to end this with a story (unknown source):
“First, I wanted to change the world;
But when I found I couldn’t, I tried to change my country;
I still failed, so I tried to change my community;
But it didn’t work, so I tried to change my family;
And I ended up changing nothing.”
“After that I realized I should change myself first;
Then my change impacts my family to change;
Afterwards the community’s changed after seeing my family’s change;
The community has made the country change;
Finally, what the country does change the world.”
Change start from ourselves, including me.
Yesterday I had a good conversation with one of my friends. He’s given me another perspective on why Malaysia isn’t moving, and his answer is we’re not moving just because we’re not moving.
By Lance Wong
Like many other guys would do, we went to ‘yamcha’ (have tea) and chat from the earth to the sky. Then of course, we talked about Malaysia’s development and started comparing ourselves with South Korea and Taiwan, the countries with the same development potential in the 90s.
I said, we can’t compare ourselves with those countries because Taiwan and S.Korea don’t have issues like racial problems, unfair treatment, favoritism policies and so on. Though I’ve given numerous reasons why Malaysia is lacking behind, my friend said: “Yes, these are existing problems that we should look into and put an end to it if possible; but these are not the excuses why Malaysia is lacking behind.”
Taiwan had/has the same corruption problems as in Malaysia. Research indicated that the use of ‘black gold’ (money politics) was very serious and it directly calls the nation for a change in government. That’s when Mr Chen Shui-Pien (of opposition) took over the government and put an end to the Kuo Min Tang (KMT) tenure over the years. However, Mr Chen was involved in corruption after all (prior to this, are we sure DSAI is not the second Mr Chen?), but still their country runs progressively and built brands like Acer, Asus which influence the global IT market. So, corruption is not necessarily the main factor to pull a country like Malaysia down.
Unfair treatment. Let’s just focus on one; education. It appears that Malaysia favors a particular race for overseas education scholarships, and this is truly happening. Then what? Are other races denied from pursuing tertiary education? No, we all have the opportunities to go for "almost the same level of education" as compared to those who have the opportunities to study abroad. Nowadays, most of the people who received JPA scholarships aren’t enrolled into some top class universities like Harvard or MIT but ‘second tier’ universities which may match the ‘level’ of Universiti Malaya. Is it that useless to obtain a local degree after all? Don’t feel resentment because of this issue but focus on what you can contribute with your local university degree. (This is rather a subjective opinion, no offence to those who pursue a foreign degree).
As you can see, some races have been resenting all the time that they have not been given equal opportunities in this and that. The point is, I can see that those who have ‘average’ qualities tend to focus on resentment rather than improvement. But those who are really ‘capable’ tend to serve other countries rather than in Malaysia because they feel ‘more appreciated’. Please stop sighing and use your talents to contribute to our dear Malaysia.
Apart from the brain drain I mentioned, the main issue is Malaysians have lost the focus of what is important - changing ourselves. And we have a bunch of ‘holier than thou’ bloggers and commentators who know nothing except how to bash the government without seeing themselves as the ones who bribe cops and resent unproductively or just not give constructive suggestions. I’m not trying to show that I’m better than the rest of you but trying to bring a message that we all can learn together, so that we can do something good for the country. Remember, we’re not moving just because we’re not moving … including me.
Finally, I’d like to end this with a story (unknown source):
“First, I wanted to change the world;
But when I found I couldn’t, I tried to change my country;
I still failed, so I tried to change my community;
But it didn’t work, so I tried to change my family;
And I ended up changing nothing.”
“After that I realized I should change myself first;
Then my change impacts my family to change;
Afterwards the community’s changed after seeing my family’s change;
The community has made the country change;
Finally, what the country does change the world.”
Change start from ourselves, including me.
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