Be considerate, have compassion

Malaysians are known to be friendly and always smiling.  Malaysian yogis are always known to be laughing out loud and happy-go-lucky and a noisy bunch.

Recently, I found that my husband was facing some culture shock in Malaysia.  To me, it's so much milder than the culture shock I got when I went to China.  He can't understand why people do not bargain to get the cheapest price, why sometimes we give way to others while driving, why when we face with something unpleasant, we don't voice it out loud, instead we just ignore, why we don't fight for our rights openly, why do we say Thank You to the waitress when she brings our food, when it is their job to serve us?

Now I see why Mainland Chinese are always known to be lack of social etiquette.  It's either they do not learn this in school or from any adults or any role model for that matter or it's a technique to survive due to the massive population.

Not all Mainland Chinese lack social etiquette.  I found those who are educated in universities are much more polite than those from rural areas.  But I have also seen those who are the only child in the family, spoilt very much by their family until they do not care about what others feel, they will just do things without considering you.

On the train journey back from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, I was walking ahead of my husband and found our seats.  I saw a young man, in his 20s sitting at our seats.  I told him that he was on our seats.  Very rudely, instead of moving to his seat which is just in front of ours, he told me to move to another seat instead.  I said no, because I am with my husband and soon my husband finally caught up.  Reluctantly, that young man moves his stuff and move to his seat.  

While in a taxi, another young man, also in his 20s, decided to car-pool in our taxi since it was past midnight and there were not many on the road.  We said OK and the taxi driver allowed him to board.  Without thinking that there were passengers in the same vehicle, he spoke very loudly on his mobile phone to his girlfriend, saying intimate things like 'Do you miss me?' and flirting and so on.  And when he heard a song on the radio, he just told the driver to put it louder and he sang along with it.  While I don't mind it all, but I thought he should at least be aware that there are other people in the car and he is not alone.

But this is the phenomenon in China right now.  Not all, but majority.   You can hear people complaining about Chinese almost everywhere, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and here in Malaysia.  Stories about cutting queues, the louder you are, the more you will be heard, etc, etc.

But what's the difference with us here in Malaysia?  I feel it's because we live amongst 3 different races and 3 different cultures.  We learn to adapt, give and take and caring about others, in another words, less selfish, more considerate and more compassionate.  We are not perfect, because I know in China, it is safe for us to wear our gold when we walk on the streets, but not here.  

I know Malaysia is also changing, for the worse.  So I hope we can still keep to our values, no to racism, yes to fairness to all.  Malaysia is a beautiful place.  We are good, polite people.  I hope we can keep it that way.

Let's us put attention on Malaysia, for crime rates to go down, for fairness for all races, for a better Malaysia.  May God Bless Malaysia.