Amazing, what miserable behaviour some people expose, ain’t it? Our cherished Farish Noor writes a good piece on our policies and compares it with a continental European system, and everyone takes the liberty to completely hijack the topic for just something else. And these are self-declared academicians who, and very much in their own right, whine about the lack of civilised manners everywhere, be it on the side of drivers who open extra lanes and block emergency vehicles, or the attitudes of government servants.
And with this I am in the very centre of the topic: Usually I adore Farish Noor’s pieces of writing. This time not so much, to be honest. Not that there was anything wrong, but Farish Noor is a political scientist of standing. While what he argues about is not intrinsically a mannerism thrown at us by the powers that be. Rather, political phenotype is inherently based on the sociological underpinnings of a society, psychological and communal behaviours and convictions. Therefore, Farish Noor can argue, and argue correctly, until the cows come home from his point of view as a political scientist. The matter won’t change essentially as long as the society does not change mostly sub-conscious and partially conscious perceptions.
And here we are: A very valid article and simply, unthinkingly, abused, raped, sodomised, to get quite another message across, a free space, tabula rasa, and off we go splashing out what we just have in mind. Will you please stop complaining next time, when a driver, similarly, uses a free lot, an emergency lane, to similarly splash his car for some short-sighted advantages?

And here I could have stopped. But since, contrary to Farish Noor, I have been observing the makings of our society from the perspective of a sociologist, and not a political scientist, I permit myself to having developed another perspective by meticulously observing the ongoings in our society. And I can only add to the article by stating that, sorry, actually we have somewhat of a government that we deserve. If not, a government that we kind of encourage or aspire. At least sub-consciously.
Not wanting to lecture everyone here and hijack the opportunity myself, one thing is for sure, and this applies to all ethnicities in Malaysia, and contrary to the masses in Europe, we love for someone else to solve our problems! We are just waiting and wanting for someone to step in, ‘the relevant authorities’ how this tends to be expressed, to ‘look into it’. This is a trait that lays the groundwork for exactly the policies that we have. When we are in need of whatnot, we approach the local bureau of the MCA, the MIC, our MP, and pass the baton to them to do what they can to be active on our behalf. Wherever I go in the corporate world, be it Twin-Towers or some SME in Subang, we wait for instructions, try to do our job the easiest way out, write a report back to the authorities, and be nice on all other occasions. When we, Malaysia, needs some knowledge, Hi-Tech, phone system, reliable cars: We approach someone, someone else, outside of Malaysia, to solve those problems of ours. We pay someone else to do the job. Again, this is not limited to certain ethnicities. “Anwar is the better orator”, is what I hear more frequently than a praise of Anwar’s grasp of the ‘gory details’ that are needed to govern a country like Malaysia. Take this as an example only. But ponder about it. We are not really into the kind of work that Farish Noor has observed in Europe. We want a fast, cheap, easy and complete solution. Most of all: One that is provided by someone else.
For me as sociologist it was a horrendous possibility to observe the people after March 8th, especially in the notorious 5 states. There are, really and unbelievably, large numbers of people who, after a few months, think that ‘it was better under BN’, simply because ‘one knew what one had’, and – now listen carefully – ‘PR hasn’t achieved much, have they? Not much of a difference’. This is oil into my fires. Malaysian electorate reluctantly vote, once per 4 or 5 years, to get someone into place to do the job for them. The MCA candidate, because he will understand my problems, the MIC lady because I can approach her for the maintenance of the temple, UMNO because I will get some handout.
As long as this is what we expect people and politicians to do, that is doing our work, delegating our decisions, we will get what we deserve, and Farish Noor will be able to observe great differences in the way politics are administrated.

I’ll shed a pearl for you here, one of the pearls that I could collect during my years of observing the temporary society.
Some years ago, we had a guest from Europe, for only a few days in Malaysia and for the first time down here, to guide us in some endeavours our organisation was planning to venture into. This person, aged close to 50, kept himself fit by daily swimming rounds of minimal 2 km. So his main interest in the hotel was in the size of the pool.
An observant person, he noticed that, contrary to what he had seen in Europe, the large majority of the bathers did not swim, and if at all, it was not quite proficient. At least that is what his impression was.
So, at the farewell dinner, he finally had to get rid of his curiosity: “Please, why is it that Malaysians cannot swim?” Sure, for him it was asked out of curiosity, for my colleagues it was plain embarrassment. That is when communications break down, though not visible. A question out of culturally nourished curiosity, read by people from a different culture, interpreting the question as ‘offensive’, swallowing all pride and anger, though, keeping their faces, but honestly being answered by one of the managers, that “of course, why do you say so, Malaysians can swim! My brother-in-law for one, he learned to swim in the river of his hometown when he was a boy!”

Hilarious! Not only is this a nice example of communicational breakdown, when semantics and context run haywire, it also is a nice clash of civilisation as we know it. I don’t know if you see the point, if you don’t, you prove me right, if you do, you also prove me right, thank you! Actually, this is what happens when a person from an essentially individually orientated society frankly speaks about an observation of his own, and innocently asks a question without any intention of being anything but interested. And this is what happens when a person of essentially a communal society does not understand the curiosity, but perceives an insult, and not of him, but of a whole group.
And to drive my point home, when the question is answered, honestly, by pointing out some person of that group who can swim, and therefore the question was in all honesty considered baseless. It expressed, without any consideration of the ‘I’, that ‘someone else knows to swim and so we are done, we can swim!’.
I had written “we love for someone else to solve our problems”. This applies here as well, we are not aware that we could take matter into our hands, we don’t have the notion of being responsible and accountable for our actions, we do what is instructed. Someone else knows how to swim, may someone else governs for us, may someone else dish out contracts or handouts to us. We gladly pass on the responsibility to swim, or govern.
Which is why 2020, in case anyone still talks about it after all, cannot materialise. Being developed nation cannot be achieved with a populace essentially waiting for someone else to act, to achieve something; and then imbibing that success as ‘we can’. Sorry, Boleh-lah. Is not going to work.