Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Why Do You Hate Malaysia: The Conclusion

YESSSSSH, Part 3 is finally up, after a long hiatus and for the people who has been waiting so long for it, here it is!

But first off, I would like to apologize for the looooong delay as:
1) half my life has been consumed by the final projects in college
2) I have been away to the middle of the world some time last month, and haven't had the time to update most things at that time

Since now it's term break, I get to update as often as possible!~ (if time permits).

And now, Why Do You Hate Malaysia Part 3: The Conclusion.
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How do we solve the ever-ubiquitous "tidak apa" attitude that has been the typical Malaysian's mindset for all this years?

We Malaysians need a SERIOUS wake up call. Yeah sure, it all boils down to the education because without knowledge, nobody knows anything. However, education itself is not going to solve it. Because even then, the education system is an utter mess – the teachers don’t care if the students don’t understand the subject just as long as they get their As, so there goes our ‘quality’ education.

What we should have done a long time ago, is to tackle each issue in an efficient manner. If it were me, I don’t care if my ways are ruthless or authoritarian, but as long as I’d solve the problem, everyone will be happy (and perhaps, grateful) in the end. Because somethings, a little push will not do the work; this is where the shoving comes in.

So the first thing for leaders to do is: stop being kiasu. If you really want to help the country grow, you would have done everything you could to improve their lives regardless of whether they are gonna love you or hate you. Example being the Penang MB, he should stop loving his warm seat and do something about his island:-

1)STOP issuing hawkers license – they are other ways to generate job choices for the people, like retraining them for certain works e.g. software training. C'mon, I thought Penang used to be our local Silicon Valley, right?

2) HELP the poor people – because people are poor, they have to become hawkers to survive. So we have to help them financially first.

3) FIRE your town planner – it’s because of this guy that the island is a mess. As in, the road system, the transport system, the arrangement and development of the buildings everywhere, you get the picture.

4) STOP building more confusing roads – same as above. The one about the island = mess.

5) WIDEN the roads – same as No.3. Hell, back in KL, if the road's too small to accomodate heavy traffic during peak hours, the DBKL fellas woulda have widen the road and compensate the owners in no time at all, because it IS their job to provide good service to the citizens. Us.

6) CONTROL the amount of development (especially the overgrowth of condos!!) – same as No.3.
Follow this art principle that has been my college's favorite (and sometimes, over-used and abused) motto: LESS is MORE.

MORE condos do NOT mean MORE money; LESS condos but with excellent facilities and that can accomodate everyone (rich, middle, poor) will give MORE benefits to everyone and the island e.g. more greenery, less monkey attacks on the 'hood.

7) LISTEN to the people and STOP wasting money on getting useless monuments built in the wrong parts of the road =.=
Most people (especially the conservative Penangites) hated the MB for this, because they know in the long run, their younger generation would have lived better lives if the money has been put to good use financially.

Therefore:
8) The best way of all is to fire the MB himself and get another better and more dedicated person for this job. One who will make sure the island GROWS properly and who takes care of the welfare of the people here. One who WILL bring back the shine to the Pearl of the Orient.

And the most important thing to come in play: make full use of your common sense and your brain. Need examples? Here you go:

1) If the leader is not qualified for the job, sack him, bring him down, and elect another person of a better capability. If you’re afraid of being stoned if you act on your own, rally with the others. Strong when united, weak when divided.

2) If you think speeding passed the red lights and hogging the road like it’s your grandfather’s road is right, think again. You may get into an accident, and even if you did survive, your car is totalled and you will be broke paying for the damages to your car AND to the victim you just hit. It’s not worth the risk (and money).

3) If you are not sure of something, ask. Nobody is going to kill you if you ask about something, and nobody is going to label you an idiot or donk or being stupid if you ask about something. Heck, people gain experience and knowledge by learning from others. Standing your grounds to defend a pointless idea is suicide – you gain nothing, everyone hates you, and you WILL become stupid.

4) Nobody is busy the whole year round. Always do the most important thing first, so that you will not be burden on the day you get stuck in a massive jam, stuck in a massive queue, and waste your massive time waiting for everything to get processed. Once again, one has to make proper plans to carry out everything – to fail to plan is to plan to fail.

Last but not least – knowledge is power. (My favorite, by the way.) We must not censored everything we deemed bad – how can Black Metal music means worshipping the Devil when the music genre is just a heavier version of rock? It’s because of the lack of awareness that makes most Malaysians paranoid, like the certain award-winning journalist who deemed Japanese animation is porn just because he saw a series that has a ‘different’ picture on it (AND HELL, that "picture" he saw is a DVD-game, NOT anime).

So you see the negative impacts one causes if one idiot groups a bad thing with everything - generalising without doing proper research is a BIG no-no, IMO. This is because people interpret things differently, that is why we share and discuss our ideas, and from there, new knowledge may have surfaced.
Therefore, without current knowledge, how can there be new knowledge? Without input, there is no output.
Therefore, we must learn everyday. Knowledge is indeed power.
And that is why the education system REALLY needs a revamp.


All this three things might have been sufficient enough to change the mindset of the people and make a better country. Once again, it all boils down to the individuals, because the individuals made up the masses, and it’s the society that holds the power to make or break the nation, either to elect a good leader or overthrown a bad one. It’s up to us to change our mindset, get rid of that tidak apa attitude, and with that, everyone’s lives would have been much more pleasant, and when everyone’s happy, the country will prosper even faster than now. Isn’t achieving the Vision 2020 what we wanted to do?
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And that, concludes my part on the WDYHM thread. It HAS been a long post (if you group the 3 together), but at least I've ranted my part. Now it's my turn to listen to YOUR ranting on your part - ya like the ideas? Ya hate it? Ya got better suggestions? Drop it all in your comments. I'll be waiting ^-^

And last, but not least, a little hint on what's coming after this part: My take on the Malaysian education system (my pet topic XD) or FreeTopic: you guys choose one, I'll give ma points on it.

So yeah. Gracias for reading, and see ya around, guys.

-Lammy-