KUALA LUMPUR: Taking a swipe at some Malaysians who constantly grumble about their country, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak reminded them that ‘the grass is not always greener on the other side’.
“Some Malaysians complain so much about their country but foreigners who come to Malaysia tend to agree that our country is paradise. Either these well- travelled foreigners are lying or they see something that we apparently cannot,” he said in a post on his blogsite, sskeruak. blogspot.my, yesterday.
He said the viewpoint of some Malaysians that ‘the grass always looks greener on the other side’ when they travelled overseas and compared other countries to Malaysia was not necessarily true.
“Take note of problems of racism and intolerance being higher in countries considered more liberal and advanced than Malaysia. Muslim women wearing hijab in European countries like England, France and the Netherlands have to deal with the fear of being discriminated against, assaulted or attacked,” Salleh said.
The minister also criticised some Malaysians who looked to one single aspect just to condemn this country.
“For example, the rise in the price of petrol. But do some Malaysians say the same thing when the price of petrol goes down? Do we have millions of homeless people sleeping on the streets like in developed countries? We need to look at Malaysia as a whole and not pick one item every day to grumble,” Salleh said.
He said some Malaysians were falling into the trap of constant grumbling about the country even when the government was actually doing something good.
“Please be aware that this is the classic anti-establishment strategy of creating dissatisfaction. We need to be rational and this means credit should be given when it’s due,” he said.
Saying that people should not sit around and grumble for the sake of grumbling, Salleh underlined that it was time to move forward to help build a better nation. — Bernama