Taking care of No. 1

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A FRIEND forwarded me an email that reads: “Ten things to learn from Japan:

1. The calm: not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2. The dignity: disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3. The ability: the incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
4. The grace: People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5. The order: No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6. The sacrifice: Fifty workers stayed back to pump seawater in the n-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
7. The tenderness: Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8. The training: The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9. The media: They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
10. The conscience: When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!”

Kevin, who is in the mailing loop, responded: “I wonder what would happen if the same thing happens in Malaysia. Yesterday one bridge closed, causing a massive jam and people were losing patience and cutting lanes and all that.” (He was referring to the closure of a bridge in Kuching when a burst underground water pipe caused a section of the road leading to it sunk).

Then another chipped in, “This is the product of our environment, culture and value.”

I suppose what this last writer meant was ‘lack of value’. And to say that our environment and culture is typified by greed and selfishness is serious indictment indeed. Though I am aware of the numerous altruistic and caring acts (largely unreported) demonstrated by the good citizens of this country but I am inclined to agree with him. The sparks of kindness are like isolated islands in the sea of general cynicism and selfishness that seem to pervade our society.

At the most mundane level selfishness and uncaring attitude is manifested in the way some people drive and park their cars. Road courtesy, it seems, is an alien concept to many motorists. They jump queues, change lanes without warning, not giving way to those with the right of way. These selfish motorists are annoying (and sometimes, dangerous) when they are moving and are equally exasperating when they are not. I lost count of the number of times I witness cars parked brazenly over two parking spaces.

As I said before, it is ironic that such state of affair exists in a stridently religious country like Malaysia where self-righteous religionists abound. Every so often, these conscience keepers of the society would issue religious edicts to keep the people along the straight and narrow. This is a country where the vast majority of the population never ceases to give praise to the Creator and to declare daily its total submission to the will of the Supreme Being. This is a nation that is never short of highfalutin visions and inspirational clarion calls by its political leaders. Yet uncivil and uncaring behaviour appears to the order of the day. This was typified by the three incidents reported by our news media last week. These were cases of road accidents on our highway where the passing motorists looted the spilled contents of the crashed vehicles instead of helping the injured drivers.

Amazingly, a learned person, a lecturer at one of our national universities and a holder of a doctorate in Social Psychology no less, said that such crass behaviour (stealing from the injured) is not that Malaysians are lacking in care and courteous values.

“However they practise that (care and courtesy) on people they know and not on others who are unknown to them”.

She then added sagely that the failure of the passers-by to help the accident victims and willingness to steal/take away items from the scene of accidents are the results of a combination of the ‘by-stander effect’ and  ‘situation factor’.

“In this situation, the society needs a role model. If someone helps a victim and another prevents the others from taking the things away, other by-standers would also do the same. What we need is a role model that shows positive values, which can push the others to do the same. I believe there are still many good Malaysians but they do not know what to do in case of emergencies,” said the good lecturer.

Well, I am no doctor (medical or otherwise) and this is appears to be too much of an academic mumbo jumbo to me. However, I do agree about the role model bit. There is an expression, “a fish rots from the head first”.  In other words, it starts at the top. We emulate the people whom we consider as role models.

I believe in Malaysia we happen to choose the wrong group of people as our role models. Maybe it is a question of circumstance rather than by choice. Role models are generally the people who are given the most prominence in the society. In Malaysia there is no group that has been given more prominence and accorded more deference than the politicians, on both sides of the divide. Yet these are the very people of whom it has been alleged to have committed the most misdeeds. There are claims and counter claims of all kinds of transgressions – from nepotism, cronyism, corruption, infidelity, lewd behaviour, treachery to even murder and everything in between. Note that I said, “alleged”. There is no way I can verify the validity of these allegations. That is up to our courts of law, the final arbiter of truth.

Now that the Sarawak state elections is just round the corner, all the aspiring representatives of the people for the next term are trying to out do each other in portraying themselves as angels and servants of the people. Politicians suddenly begin to show great concern about clogged drains, badly maintained roads, the unhygienic state of the markets, etc. — all very noble and responsible gestures. This is also the season of outlandish promises.

At the same time all the parties are also trying their level best to paint their respective opponents as the devils. Yes, this is the time when the alleged vices and virtues of the people who strive to be the custodians of our wealth and destiny for the next five years be broadcast to the world. All these shenanigans are enough to turn even the most gullible into hardened cynics.

The people are at a loss as to who and what to believe. Many would fall for the adage, “there is no smoke without fire”. Whatever it is, faith and trust are the casualties. Many would say, “To h@%& with values and caring society. I just want to take care of No.1 – me!”

So, whatever the exaltation of religious leaders and moralists, “taking care of No. 1” seems to be the order of the day.

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