It’s A Shame…

Malaysia is the top five countries whose citizens are consistently being denied entry into Britain and Malaysians are among the top 10 nationalities who overstay and in the top 20 for overall immigration abuses (please refer to Friday, September 26, 2008 the Star Online: Malaysians the top Britain visa abusers). As a Malaysian, the writer feels very shameful about this and think that the Government should start considering ways to solve this issue.

The writer went to Newcastle, United Kingdom in year 2003 – 2004 for his degree. Below is the writer’s experiences.

Malaysians are one of the most favourite nationalities in Britain as Malaysians could speak multi-language and are hard working. This was what the writer was told by the businessmen who stay in United Kingdom. The employers (especially those in China Town) prefer Malaysians than other nationalities. Malaysians would be given priority when looking for a part time job in China Town. This was the experience of the writer himself.

When the writer was in Newcastle, there was this trend by his fellow Malaysians, i.e. to sign a telecommunication contract which they would be entitled a mobile phone and they bought insurance for the mobile phone. After a month or so, they would report “mobile phone lost” and claim for a new mobile phone. All they need to do was to report to the nearest police station that they lost their mobile phone and shut their mobile phone prior to lodge the police report. They were entitled to claim for two to three mobile phone before the insurance company terminated their insurance contract.

The “lost mobile phones” were sold in internet or brought back to Malaysia for their family members. Some fellow Malaysians even started eBay Trading Account and earned profits out of it. Should fellow Malaysians be treated as business minded and/ or talented nationalities?

Perhaps the readers might wish to know if the writer also did the same thing, i.e. claim for mobile phones? The writer did not practise this trend. The writer always advice his fellow Malaysians not to do this as this would cause Malaysians to be blacklisted sooner or later. Malaysians’ reputation would be worse and even worst. However, a lot of the fellow Malaysians did not bother to protect the reputation of the Malaysians as a whole!

The writer strongly felt that the civic conscious of Malaysians are very poor and getting worse. Everyone is starting to be selfish. We do not think of others like the old days where Malaysians were friends and family. Perhaps in this materialistic era, this is something necessary to protect the interest of yourself?

The writer was told by the older generation that they were taught civic conscious in the olden days. The civic conscious was later replaced by moral education. Is moral education really helpful? The writer does not think so as in the E era where everyone could assess to internet, the moral standard could be easily influenced by others, especially the western culture.

Moral education did not provide much help in the writer’s personal view. Moreover, moral education is not really an education but for the sake of examination, students spent their time memorising all the “value”. When it comes to implementation, typical Malaysians’ style: unable to deliver well.

The writer hopes that the Government would consider re-introducing civic conscious to the younger generation. The writer does not know if civic conscious would be helpful and successful, but by increasing the civic conscious of the younger generation, the writer thinks that at least the younger generation would be able to see things as a whole and not just for themselves.

Look at the western culture. Although some of the western cultures could be deemed immoral, but their civic conscious remains high. They know what ought to be done and what not to be done. When they do something, they think of other and protect the reputation of others.

The writer hopes that the Government should consider taking some steps to improve the reputation and image of Malaysians. Malaysians also must think of the reputation of other fellow Malaysians as a whole and must not acted selfishly for own benefits, especially in international level. The writer hopes that civic conscious education would be re-introduced again and one day, all the Malaysians would have a high level of civic conscious!

We must not be good from far. We must also not be far from good!

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