Malaysia and Malaysian Mentality, Merdeka?

I bet lotsa bloggers, Malaysian bloggers, blog about Merdeka. Well, I'm now, though it's a bit late.

I've been in Germany for 2 and a half year give and take. Therefore, it's inevitable that I take some of their habits into account. When I first arrived in Germany (Particularly Cologne/Koeln) my daily spending are converted from Euro to RM. Now, when I'm in our beloved Boleh-land, I tend to convert RM to Euros. Eating at posh places doesn't seemed that posh anymore.

Malaysia and Malaysian Drivers

Wonder why my introduction seemed like "Heh?". Figures. When I first arrived in Germany. One of the first things I realized about their habits is obeying the law, in particular when they are on the roads. Their zebra crossings is usable (Read = Doesn't need to look left-right-left). In comparison, if you do that in Malaysia, you will be dead meat faster the you can say "Zebra crossing".

The funny thing is off the road, Malaysian is very courteous. They even talk about "other" people on the road who drive recklesly, queue on the yellow box and many more. They shake their heads, sigh about it and say "Taktau la depa ni." (More or less means "What are gonna happen to them ..." in northern Malay accent). But ... A very big BUT, this particular group of people is the one who doesn't abide to the road safety measures and law. The drive and ride like they have cat's nine lives.

So, I think government sarcastic and sometime very real approach in campaigns are very good. But then, maybe Malaysians have skulls with the thickness of lead.

Think about it.

Love-Hate Relation Between Teachers, Students and Parents

Both my parents works in the education field. My mothers works as a teacher and my father works in the office. So talks during tea time or driving often circulate around the education topic.

During this holiday (For us German student who are on a summer break.), one of the hottest news is about students being punished by their teacher by asking them to stay in a pond near their hostel. After some hot media coverage, they eventually reconcile. But along the way, the reputation of this noble profession is being tarnished. I can't help to pity the teacher. It's like I pitying my own parents. Parents who aren't teacher expect too much from these teachers and give so little. Why? Firstly, how many go to the PIBG meetings? Then, how many monitors their children outside of the school? They expect the teacher to know everything, literally everything. I don't think it's on their job description. And they do more than their paycheck value. Free extra classes for the public-exam students are a great example.

However, teachers are not angels. They're humans. They do makes mistakes. And sometimes mistakes reads as laziness. They don't go into classes. And students being students wouldn't even care for a bit. Not all teachers do this but these things do happen. Remember I have "insider tips". If teachers don't go into class, how are the students going to get knowledge? Although the government are pushing hard the KBKK value, I personally think schools are the place to spoon feed the student. Let's leave the KBKK part to high school or maybe, more appropriately, the college.

Sometimes mistakes reads extra income. Ever heard of side business? Some teachers say their paycheck is small, so what's wrong in making a couple of extra bucks? MANY!!! You won't have the same amount of time anymore to do your "main business" when you do side business. Planning for classes, looking over exercises and marking exam papers are all on the job description, I think and they all are usually done outside the school. You won't have the same motivation anymore because a mind is preoccupied with extra bucks, new customer and new down line.

In these cases I think parents has the right to be angry. However anger must be channeled to the right place. The when-I-switched-TV-XXX-on-I-see-problems-about-our-education-system situation is not the right one. It'll just create more rift between school and home, the two places kids grow up. See the class teacher, counselor (Give him some jobs, please!) or pengetua/guru besar. Don't be glamour freaks or you'll end up like participants who goes to the AF audition and knows the have the lovely voice of a frog.

Record Breaking Malaysian, the WOW-Buildings and the DUH-Administration

Malaysians have some weird gusto when it comes to breaking the records. Forget the Guinness World's Book of Record, we have our own friggin' book. I respect some attempts, for example climbing the Everest or swimming across the Malacca Strait. I despise something like building Jalur Gemilang from, say what, pop corns? Better give free to movie goers.

Malaysian have many WOW-Buildings that obviously makes people go WOW. You knows it: KLCC, KLIA, the various building in Putrajaya, Sepang International Circuit etc. I'm very proud of em, really. Even old folks in Bocholt (A small village in Germany where I live and study) knows about the twin tower. But we have to take an Australian to manage Suria KLCC and give hell to bumiputera who try to make a living there. Shitty stuff.

Despite all that, I never found a Malaysian who say he/she doesn't love Malaysia. Our country is truly unique. We all love our country (Who doesn't love a country which is the home of teh tarik, roti canai, kari, nasi lemak and char kuey tiaow?). The problem is, after 50 years of independence are we truly free? Are our mentality as high as the tip of KLCC? I hope I can live long enough to see Malaysia celebrate it's 100th Merdeka anniversary. By then maybe we can cross our zebra crossing without looking left/right and maybe, just maybe, see the Malaysia football team in the World Cup.

Quote of the Day

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." - John F. Kennedy