Productive Nation & Handouts Culture

I have helped practically all of my family members financially on many occasions in the past. Many were interest-free loans which had to be paid back; but some were just cash handouts without the need to pay back. What I've realised is that when people come to you to seek financial help, they'd usually expect you to help immediately, as if you earned your money like plucking leaves from trees, because they're convinced that they deserve that help. But when it comes to paying back, it may take months, even years, if they pay back at all. This is despite having promised a payback timetable. Further more, this thing about asking for financial help almost always can become a habit for most people.

The other thing that I've realised is that it doesn't matter how many times you help others. People have the tendency to forget all those times. They will only remember the single time that you've refused to help. There is nothing I can do about it; I suppose that's human nature.

A few years ago, my niece sought financial help from me. She promised to pay back within a certain timeframe. It wasn't a very short time - it was for about a year, on monthly installments, and interest free. So I agreed to help. However, she failed to keep to her end of the deal. When the time came, I asked her what has happened to the agreed timeframe for the payback. Her reply was quite a surprise to me. She said it's not that she didn't want to pay, but she's a full-time housewife; her husband wasn't earning a lot of money. I was thinking, if you can't afford to pay, then don't commit. Because I may have plans on what I want to do with my money.

Well, to make the long story short, she eventually paid me. But after a few months, she came back to ask for help again. Having had that earlier experience dealing with her, I decided not to help, because I don't want to end up begging for my own money. She kept coming back on several other occasions after that, asking for financial help, but I kept refusing. Then a few months ago, I suddenly realised that she has unfriended me on facebook. Such is the story of a bad and inconsiderate uncle!

Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963, and we have developed quite substantially since then. We now have many universities, among the tallest buildings in the world, modern roads and railway system, impressive internet connectivity (at least in the urban areas), land and air transportation, to name a few. The government produces annual statistics to show impressive growth in GDP. On the surface of it, Malaysia is a productive nation.

However, Malaysians as a whole - I mean the people, not the country - are actually not productive. No, far from it, we are people living on the principle of handouts culture. Since almost 6 decades ago, nothing much have changed for the attitude of Malaysians. Basically, we still can't stand on our own two feet up to now. We expect subsidies on essential goods, education, medicare, and even cash handouts, and many, many other goods and services. 

Many Malaysians have taken up education loans, for example, which they promised to pay back, but actually never intended to. Instead, when it's time to pay they demanded that those loans be cancelled. The government's performance is judged on several factors, but apparently the main one is on how much handouts it can give to the people. The more that the government can give to the people, the more it is judged as a good government, and vice versa. Such is the mentality of Malaysians as a whole.

Thankfully, Malaysia is rich in natural resources. It has oil and fertile lands for agriculture, for example. These resources can be tapped and harvested. But they obviously can't last forever, and as the population grow, the size of the handouts will shrink sooner or later.

You really don't have to be a genius to do the math. Living on handouts can't last forever. Sooner or later, the tap will run dry. The only way for us to ensure that there's something left for the next generation is for us to be productive ourselves. Learn to be independent.

If my niece doesn't forgive her bad uncle, that's OK, life goes on I guess. But someday, I hope she will learn to be independent. We should all fight the tendency to blame others for not helping us; rather we should learn to help ourselves first. We should learn to gradually shy away from the handouts culture. But don't take forever to learn.

The Will of the People

The last Sabah State Election was held on 09 May 2018. The next election was supposed to take place five years later, i.e. in May 2023. However, the state assembly was recently dissolved, and Sabah will therefore be having another state election, which will take place on 26 September. 

I have had several casual conversations with friends about the political scene in Sabah, and I can't help noticing that among the many points discussed, one that kept emerging was the "will of the people". Most people that I've talked to seemed to believe that Sabahans had rejected BN and its allies based on the result of the 2018 election. 

Is that really the case?

Before I attempt to answer that question, let me share my own views about Sabah politics and how I voted in the last election.

First and foremost, I did not think that the previous government was all that bad. But I was not in favour of the then Chief Minister. Not everything about him was bad though. There were many good things that he has done for Sabah. However, I felt that power can change a person. If one has power for far too long, he is bound to forget that that power was actually given to him by the people. He may behave like the power is his, permanently, and therefore do as he pleases. In the years past, I felt like the then Chief Minister went through a gradual change for the worse, and it was time for Sabah to get a new Chief Minister.

Unfortunately, it is the nature of Malaysian politics that the man at the top is hardly ever challenged. He is usually one with almost absolute power over everybody else. Either nobody would dare to challenge him for the top post, or nobody could win even if he tried, because there are so many things that the man at the top can do to ensure that he remains at the top. Therefore, the only way to remove the man at the top is to bring down the entire government. Which means so many other people in the government, including the good ones, will have to go too.

I voted for the opposition in the last election. But to be honest, I did not know any of the candidates that well. I have not researched on their backgrounds. Neither have I attended any of their talks during campaigning. I voted for them simply because I wanted a new leader, although not necessarily a new government. But since the only way to get a new leader was to bring down the entire government, I had no choice but to vote for the opposition, the candidates regardless!

Now, to come back to the subject of the "will of the people", is it true that Sabahans have rejected the previous government? Somehow the result of the previous election does not support that claim. When the result was announced, the previous government won 29 seats; the opposition won 29 seats; and the Lonely Cowboy had 2 seats. Strictly speaking that was the "will of the people", fifty-fifty.

Just a quick word about the Lonely Cowboy. He has a long history of wanting to be the Ketua; and he jumped from one party to another, and in each party that he landed in, chaos ensued. I'm not sure if those chaos were directly caused by him, or by his supporters, but there was always a trail of destruction. So when the result of the election was announce tied at 29-29, I knew that the Lonely Cowboy would seize the opportunity to become a Ketua. He did become the Deputy Chief Minister and enjoyed the position for a day in office. I'm very happy for him.

Anyway, the 2018 election result tells me that about half of Sabahans still wanted the previous government; and the other half wanted a new government. The rest voted for the Lonely Cowboy (I can't understand why). Therefore, to me, there is no evidence, based on the 2018 election result, that Sabahans as a whole wanted a new government. It should be born in mind that some of the elected representatives that eventually switched alliance, and eventually formed a new government, were actually voted by the people under the previous government's ticket.

Truth be told, what Sabahans really want can't be judged based on the 2018 election. I'm hoping that the result of the coming election will be a clearer picture of the will of the people. I keep an open mind, whoever wins, I can accept the will of the majority.

Defensive Reaction

I was chatting with a friend about the Sabahan girl in the famous video of her studying on a tree top in her village in the northern part of Sabah. Apparently, the internet connectivity in her village was very poor, and she had to resort to climbing a tall tree to get a stronger signal. She said she was having her exams for Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

I was commenting to my friend, that a Deputy Minister, while responding to a question in Dewan Rakyat, claimed that the girl wasn't speaking the truth; that she was actually not having any exams at the time of the video; that she was in fact seeking fame by posting that video. The Deputy Minister's statement was later found to have been wrong, and he had to quickly apologize for his mistake.

I asked my friend, "If it is found that the girl was indeed lying about her story in the video, should she apologize?"

My friend's response was quite a surprise to me. He said it's not important if the girl was lying. Whether or not she apologizes, that's up to her; it's a small matter.

Seriously? Is that the view of the majority? Well, in that case, I range myself on the side of the minority. I don't take lightly if kids are in the habit of lying. If I find that my daughter is lying, I would certainly reprimand her. I may want to find out why she's lying, of course, but ultimately I would want to prevent it from becoming a habit.

Curious, I posted a similar question on my facebook page. After giving a background of the case, I raised the same question:

"If it is found that the girl has lied in her video, should she apologize for lying?"

Examples of simple possible answers might look something like this:

"If she has lied, then yes, she should apologize."

"Even if she lied, there is no need to apologize, because that lie is harmless."

Well, I received several replies in the comment section of my post, and as I had expected, almost all of them did not answer my question! These responses ranged from telling me that her brother has already responded to the politician's statements in her defense; that the girl is under a lot of stress because she's being bullied by politicians; that whether she's lying or not is not the central issue; that there's poor internet connectivity in her village; that she's preparing for her exams (if she doesn't have connectivity, how is she going to prepare for her exams?). Those are all interesting points and merit separate discussions, but they did not answer my question! The question, once again:

"If it is found that the girl has lied in her video, should she apologize for lying?"

As I said, these responses did not answer my question. But they all have one thing in common; they're all the kind of responses that are defensive in nature. There is a psychological significance here. The point is that when these people are reading my post, even long before arriving at the question in the end, they have made up their minds to defend the poor girl, and were already on the defensive mode. Their mind was overwhelmed by the passion of defending the girl, no matter what. It followed that whatever replies they give would be in the nature of defending the girl by explaining her plight; or about the poor internet connectivity of the village; or about incompetent politicians; but not answering whether if someone has lied, he or she should apologize for lying.

There is the tendency, especially among women, to have different standards and expectations when it comes to their loved ones. I have noticed, for example, that some parents would gossip and comment negatively about the children of so-and-so misbehaving, and their parents should have taught them some manners! Yet they're blind to the fact that their own children are also misbehaving! They will always try to explain and justify why their own children are misbehaving. That is why I make it clear to my wife that I'm not keen to discuss about other kids. I would rather discuss about my own daughter.

So for one final time, answer this simple question if you can. Forget about the girl in the video; never mind the story about the tree and the internet connectivity or incompetent politicians. Just answer this:

If a kid tells lies, should he or she apologize for lying?