Culture have been meeting and mixing in Malaysia since the very beginning of its history. Today we can proudly say that the culture of Malaysia is not chiefly influence by one dominant ethnic, but a mixture of Malays, Chinese, Indians and other races’ cultures. However, it is a saddening fact that despite all the good and traditional values in our culture, we also have some negative cultures in this big pot of culture stew. Here’s are some examples of Malaysian’s positive and negative culture.
Positive :
- Yumcha / Minum culture
Yumcha, meaning drinking tea ( literally in Cantonese ) is such a popular culture among Malaysian, across all the ethnics. Even though it comes from the tea drinking culture of Chinese , Malaysian have develop their own version of yumcha culture. We don’t only drink tea, but we choose from array of drinks including kopi, teh, teh tarik, milo and so forth, together with a wide range of foods including roti and nasi lemak. We can see Malaysian sitting at kopitiam and mamak at different periods of time, chit- chatting all kinds of topics, debating on political issues and commenting on the football match last night. Do not think that Malaysian got nothing better to do other than wasting their time in coffee shops – it is actually a way to bond people from all walks of life together. Regardless of ethnicity and religious views, Malaysian will gather together in one table and have their so call high tea together. Here’s a famous Malaysian quotes ” tonight mamak, on? ” Ya, yumcha has become a need, not a desire.
2)Open House culture
Due to the ethnic diversity in Malaysia, we are blessed to have a lot of different festivals from different ethnic groups. Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali and even Hari Gawai, our calendars are marked with many events and festivals throughout the year. And the most enticing part of every festivals is neither the alluring food offered or holidays granted; we cherish the moments by visiting our friends who are celebrating the festivals. We can see Malays and Indians going to Chinese’s open houses during CNY; we can see all the races shopping in the Bazaar Ramadhan during the fasting month; and in my hometown Kuching, people from every ethnic group will visit the Dayak group of people to savor on their delicious ayam pansuh and wish them ” Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai ( Happy Gawai) “. This phenomena is simply majestic as it shows that people can be united despite difference in culture.
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3) Tolerance, democracy and the rights to voice up – it’s in our blood
Many topics used to be sensitive and were not to be debated in public in Malaysia, when the country was under the influence of some dictators who wanted absolute authority. With the continuous growth of technology and the development of more advance mindsets, Malaysian are now equipped with the knowledge and the courage to speak out their minds. The government is no longer the all-mighty forces that control everything – the people are now the boss. United, Malaysian are now determined to fight for a brighter future. We Malaysian are undivided and will more together in all cause, fighting for our own rights.
Negative culture :
- Procrastination/ not punctual/ lack of efficiency
This is commonly found in teenagers and students of Malaysia as their consciousness towards the importance of time is not up to the full extend yet. We always see people saying that they are ” on the way ” when they just merely get ready at home. This culture should be eliminated as Malaysian will become less efficient in time managing skills, which is a very important capabilities that Malaysian should possessed. There is also another sickening culture among Malaysian which is the lack of efficiency. We usually see long government offices, banks and registration office teeming with people because the officers are taking too long to settle their work. And also long queue and long waiting time which get us annoyed every time. This situation need to be rectified as soon as possible.
2) Kiasu culture/ exam orientated education system
The education system in Malaysia is exam orientated and it results in many bad consequences. Students are now trained to become exam machines that will score perfect A score each and every time, and when they don’t they will be tagged as students who are performing poorly. This indirectly lead to the kiasu culture among students where everyone fight and competes against each other. They will feel severely depressed if their performance is not the best. The”kiasu”ness is so overwhelming until people can commit suicide if they didn’t obtain their desired results in exam. Maybe urging ourselves to perform excellently is originally a good idea, but when it comes to an extreme level, it can be dangerous and even fatal.
3) Bullying
It is not a urban legend anymore that Malaysian actually gone through this, be it in soft way or hard way of bullying. In government high school we always see people forming gangs or whatnot, and trying to isolate other people that they don’t fancy. Even road bully is also not a new issue in our country.
liewjuedengmpu 