Losing the moral ground
Have you ever wonder what is happening to the Malaysia society these days? I looked at the curiculum of my daughter’s Primary One and there are "Pendidikan Moral” (moral studies) almost every other day. And yet, the state of moral in the society is at its worst.
Take what happened to me in Kota Damansara this morning. I was at the commercial area, in my car, when another Mercedes reversed out of it’s parking. I stopped my car, waiting for the Merc to come out, giving it space. But the two cars behind me decided not to wait, they swing to the left and tried to overtake both me and the Merc. The first car, Kancil, was able to over take both of us, but not the second car, Honda Jazz. The Merc moved along, with the Kancil in front of it. I followed behind and Merc and instead of falling in line, the damn Honda Jazz decide that she has to in front of me and cut in instead. I was pissed but I wonder, seriously, whatever happened to common courtesy?
I am an not angel myself, being guilty of these once a while, and I do find that I don’t have patience in the road as well. But it still begs the question - why are we (as a society) in such a rush? Why can’t we wait for that 5 second to let the other car come out of its parking? In many cross-intersections you see cars forcing their way through, causing other cars to stop to let them pass. Why do these cars have to force through? Why don’t people let them go? Sure, some do let them go and then they get stuck as more and more cars from the other side started to zoom through, not giving way.
Is this an issue with the Malaysian society as a whole? We are all in fear of being stuck for hours in traffic and so we had to get up early and beat the traffic. And because of the lack of security, most parents have to pick the kids up from school and that means rushing during lunch time to chauffeur them. Our weekdays on the road are highly stressful, on weekends, we are also in a rush due to extra curicular activities for the kids. But why?
Discussing moral issues will never be complete without talking about garbage. Have you ever been to Kota Damansara? Or CentrePoint McDonald’s in Bandar Utama? These two areas are affluent neighbourhood in Petaling Jaya. That means people here are highly educated and have money. But yet, do you notice how filthy the commercial areas around Kota Damansara and outside McDonald’s Bandar Utama is? Why do people just litter all over the place? These people have education, their kids went to Moral Study every other day in school and yet, they litter everywhere! My pet peeves are with people who litter in car park. These people open the door of their car, drop packages of litter just below their door and drove away out of the car park. And you see litters just lying around at the lines of parking place. This is very prominent in the place where I work and this building that I am at housed multinational companies like IBM, KPMG, Silverlake, Braun, Toyota Capital, One World Hotel. These are freaking working executives and professionals and THEY litter the car park like some third world ignorant - wait, no wonder Malaysia is still considered third world.
I rest my case.
Funny thing is, many of these professionals went for overseas education when they were younger. They are probably graduate from Australia, Europe or America. I don’t see them behaving that way in those countries. And yet, they did it in Malaysia without a bat in the eye.
So, it’s back to my earlier question - what happened to Malaysia society? Why are we losing the moral ground as a collective group?
Take what happened to me in Kota Damansara this morning. I was at the commercial area, in my car, when another Mercedes reversed out of it’s parking. I stopped my car, waiting for the Merc to come out, giving it space. But the two cars behind me decided not to wait, they swing to the left and tried to overtake both me and the Merc. The first car, Kancil, was able to over take both of us, but not the second car, Honda Jazz. The Merc moved along, with the Kancil in front of it. I followed behind and Merc and instead of falling in line, the damn Honda Jazz decide that she has to in front of me and cut in instead. I was pissed but I wonder, seriously, whatever happened to common courtesy?
I am an not angel myself, being guilty of these once a while, and I do find that I don’t have patience in the road as well. But it still begs the question - why are we (as a society) in such a rush? Why can’t we wait for that 5 second to let the other car come out of its parking? In many cross-intersections you see cars forcing their way through, causing other cars to stop to let them pass. Why do these cars have to force through? Why don’t people let them go? Sure, some do let them go and then they get stuck as more and more cars from the other side started to zoom through, not giving way.
Is this an issue with the Malaysian society as a whole? We are all in fear of being stuck for hours in traffic and so we had to get up early and beat the traffic. And because of the lack of security, most parents have to pick the kids up from school and that means rushing during lunch time to chauffeur them. Our weekdays on the road are highly stressful, on weekends, we are also in a rush due to extra curicular activities for the kids. But why?
Discussing moral issues will never be complete without talking about garbage. Have you ever been to Kota Damansara? Or CentrePoint McDonald’s in Bandar Utama? These two areas are affluent neighbourhood in Petaling Jaya. That means people here are highly educated and have money. But yet, do you notice how filthy the commercial areas around Kota Damansara and outside McDonald’s Bandar Utama is? Why do people just litter all over the place? These people have education, their kids went to Moral Study every other day in school and yet, they litter everywhere! My pet peeves are with people who litter in car park. These people open the door of their car, drop packages of litter just below their door and drove away out of the car park. And you see litters just lying around at the lines of parking place. This is very prominent in the place where I work and this building that I am at housed multinational companies like IBM, KPMG, Silverlake, Braun, Toyota Capital, One World Hotel. These are freaking working executives and professionals and THEY litter the car park like some third world ignorant - wait, no wonder Malaysia is still considered third world.
I rest my case.
Funny thing is, many of these professionals went for overseas education when they were younger. They are probably graduate from Australia, Europe or America. I don’t see them behaving that way in those countries. And yet, they did it in Malaysia without a bat in the eye.
So, it’s back to my earlier question - what happened to Malaysia society? Why are we losing the moral ground as a collective group?
