No Manners Nor Cow Sense

... on second thoughts, I shouldn't insult the bovine species.

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The country can forget its hope of becoming a developed nation anytime in the near future.

Why?

Because its people have 4th world mentality. I know there's no 4th world but that goes to show how bad the M'sian mentality is. What's makes it worse is that we have good facilities (those that are not leaking or collapsing) but the way some M'sians behave, it's better that we DON'T have any good facilities.

Simple manners seem to delude them. For example, just this morning, I held the office door open for a woman who was entering the office behind me. Not only did she not say a word of thanks to me for holding the door open for her, she acted like I wasn't even there! As if the door magically stayed open by itself. Gosh, I shudder to think what type of example she's setting for her children. (Yes, I dunno why I even care to hold doors open for people here. But it's a habit -- a good one, I think -- that I'd picked up from the States. Unfortunately, people here never seem to appreciate it. Maybe next time I should just let the door slam on their faces. Hah!)

And it is beyond me, how people can instinctively know how to keep their own homes and cars clean, but totally disregard the cleanliness of public property, places, etc. It's like, just because they don't own the place, they can do whatever they want to it. For example, I have seen countless people throw rubbish out of their cars while on the road. And with children in the car some more! Don't you feel like strangling these people???!!! That's like, stealing from a shop in front of your own kid and telling him/her "Hey boy/girl, it's ok to steal, you know". Hellooo!! What are you teaching your children??!!! In Bangkok and many other countries, you can actually notice people throwing their trash in the garbage can on a regular basis. Children even. Here, you see the parents littering.

You know how the public toilets, even in our canggih shopping malls like Suria KLCC, are always dirty and wet with paper towels/toilet paper thrown indiscriminately (on the floors, outside the bin, etc.)? It is such a disgrace! Heck, we even have Toilet Usage Guidelines on the doors of the toilets at my office :

I think it's quite pathetic that a sign has to be put up to teach people how to keep the toilets clean. Don't you think this is just plain, simple common sense that you don't even need to think to know what to do???

On the other hand, public toilets in Bangkok malls are so clean! (I'm comparing mall-to-mall). They were dry and not a single scrap of paper on the floor. Whereas in M'sia, it's a rare instance indeed to find a toilet cubicle with DRY floors! In the US, wet toilet floors are unheard of!

I don't understand why. Is it our toilet habits? How different are our toilet habits compared to the Thais? Do they throw rubbish differently from us? Not that I know of. I mean, you have a piece of trash, you look for a trashcan and throw it in there. It's not rocket science.

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Before anyone starts cursing me for dissing M'sians and M'sia, yes, I will consider leaving this country if ever I have the chance, if things do not change for the better. Though it would be quite a sad day for me if that ever happens because this is home (though it feels less like it everyday, after hearing what spews out of our MPs mouths). No, it's not just about dirty toilets. But what with an incompetent and corrupt government running the country, legalized discrimination, and faux freedom to practice the religion you wish (yes, refer to the Lina Joy case and those preceeding hers), faux freedom of the press, speech, etc. etc... we are definitely heading down the drain. I don't want to but I feel I have to, or at least, plan for the future "what ifs". Like, what if the govt. decides to pass a law that says non-Malays have to be like this or that, or must abide by this or that. Like JN said, if they're going to treat me like a second class citizen in my own country, might as well BE a second class citizen elsewhere.

I don't believe that the grass is greener elsewhere. Every country has its pros and cons. But to be celebrating our 50th year of independence but not getting the fundamentals (e.g. equality in race/gender/work, transparency of the govt., press/speech freedom, human rights, etc.) firmly in place all this while is just wrong. If there are signs that show that the govt. is sincere and actually working to make things better, even though we're not 100% there yet, then it's not so bad. But problem is, there isn't any. And people can still be so happy happy, celebrating our 50th merdeka without anything substantial to show for it except more buildings and lesser forests.

I don't remember it being like this during P. Ramlee's time, or my parents time, from the stories that they've told me. There was so much more racial harmony and freedom back then. No such thing as that petty "Muslims cannot wish non-Muslims a Happy Deepavali" sort of crap.

So what went wrong?