Missing Malaysia....
Bila melayu jumpa melayu di perantauan, ada yang senyum2 lalu memberi salam. Alhamdullilah......masih ada kemesraan persaudaraan kita dari serumpun bangsa.
Ada juga melayu yang memusing muka pura2 tak nampak. Alhamdullilah, kerana masih terbukti ada orang kita yang bangga dirinya mengatasi segala.
I am a traveller. Been to many places, seen and met many malaysians living and visiting places away from Malaysia.
Paling seronok ialah bila malaysians sudah menguntum senyuman walau pun masih tak terjangkau tangan untuk bersalaman. Bertegur sapa, bertanya khabar,
"Dari mana? Jalan2 ka tinggal sini?"
I am a lucky traveller. Have personally met so many kind hearted Malaysians; mostly strangers who have been warm and kind. In all those cases we parted as friends.
But I have not been lucky all the time. There was this one incident when I was in a city somewhere in Europe. Met this couple with a son aged about 6 tagging onto his mother's coat.
I thought she looked familiar, and her husband looked familiar too. The kind of familiarity which made me said to myself, "Eh I've seen them before....but where was it?!!"
So, i smiled...and approached with a greeting. MyW chose to stay on at the cloth rack of the mega store. He took one look at me....sneered, and looked at his wife and said loud enough for me to hear, "Tak kenal pun nak tegur!".
He could be about mid-to-early thirties. Younger than me.....
Age in a Malaysian culture plays a role as far as I know. When everything else is unknown, then one respects another who looks older. The flip side of that is, if the respect is not given - then the older person would feel more hurt than say, in the western society.
So i was hurt. I turned back to MyW who saw that I was offended, and she soothed my pain with a " Tak per la bang, dia orang busy nak shopping tu".
I left it at that. I never got to find out who they were, but until today after like six years i still remember not only the incident but also their faces vividly.
Perhaps, the hyper wealthy air of Harrods in the Knightsbridge have given them an altitude sickness - of flying too high on their own ego.
I have recently came across a community of malaysian doctors living abroad. Almost all have purchased their own houses, with intention to stay for a long haul. They were the most humble, hospitable and closely knitted malaysian community I have seen anywhere abroad.
At one of the dinner invitations, the host asked me " What is your impression of Dublin?"
I gave a quick fire of my impressions;
- That you guys are very closely knitted, more like relatives than friends.
- The practice of Islam is very apparent, where most would seek place to pray when it was time for prayer.
- You are all doing very well, and I am actually proud to see Malaysians doing so well abroad.
However, I rarely see Malaysians abroad integrating with the locals.
My personal view is a Malaysian abroad would gain much more if he makes an effort to intergrate with the locals. Afterall, part of benefits in living abroad is to widen our own outlook to different cultures and make new friends, especially the culture of the host country and friends from a global village. Our children, I must say, are all doing great at this.
It was a realisation moment for me when one day I accompanied my son to a birthday party for one of his friends. There were about 20 kids boys and girls, and I can see no less than ten different nationalities. And how they played and enjoyed each other's company - transgressing the colour of their skin or the passport they hold. One day, I hope to see Luqman grow up to be more tolerant of diversity and more appreciative .....that as long as we are human, no matter what our nationality is we can be friends and be nice to each other.
I myself am living in the Middle East - the gate way city to Mekah and Medinah. Tonight, when I was on YM with a friend who is living abroad as well, an Arab friend rang my door bell - stopping by for coffee. That is just lovely! It is not a culture for Arabs to just stop by. It is however our Malaysian culture. I am happy to see him adapting to my culture - to me a sign of friendship which has surpassed the surface of having small talk about the weather.
I greeted him at the door with a hug and kisses to his right, then left and finally right cheek. Not our culture to kiss another man - but in this case it is me adapting to his culture. That is only an example to illustrate my point about intergration.
No matter what, where or how long a Malaysian has lived abroad - he or she will always miss Malaysia and harbour dreams and hope to return. But everytime he/she goes back for holiday to homeland Malaysia - there is something that is not quite right. After spending three nights in a hotel room, and after seeing how everyone is busy with their own lives - our Malaysian guests start to miss their own home. And when that plane takes off the KLIA tarmac - they breath easy and feel relieve - that they are going 'home'.
Malaysia will always be a home away from home.
Why Malaysians abroad want to return to Malaysia
Below are a few of the reasons
1) Feels at home,
2) Familiarity
3) Food
4) Family
5) Friends
So what is stopping many Malaysians from coming back home
1) Financial
2) Foreign exchange
3) Quality of education - eroding fast
4) Lack of job opportunities
5) High cost of living relative to wage
7) Faith - lack of it in the Government under the current administration
8) Freedom - lack of it, in term of living one's life the way one want to live it.
If we take a closer look at the education of Malaysia in general with that of Singapore we are being left behind. NUS is climbing up the ranks but UM is sliding like there is no tomorrow. Even Thailand university seems to be moving in the right direction. Our ASEAN cousins are hungry for success but we are feeling relax and unaware of the competition surrounding Malaysia. My greatest worry is when Malaysia runs out of oil and gas, where will Malaysia stand. Singapore without a single drop of oil can achieve about the same GDP as Malaysia economy in USD terms. We cant always rely on oil and devaluation to make our goods competitive. Now China and Thailand cars are swarming the world. It is etiher we embrace the world or we force our citizen to put up the fact that people outside Malaysia can enjoy quality cars but Malaysian will need to pay more to enjoy the same things.
Isn't it interesting to see, most of reason why Malaysians abroad want to come home and miss Malaysia has got to do with emotion. They are reasons ruled by the heart.
While the reasons why they don't come back are actually logical reasons from their heads.
Perhaps, if our government exercise a bit more brain power in improving in those areas such as education and employment, then we will start to see a reversal of brain drain back into our beloved country Malaysia.
Ada juga melayu yang memusing muka pura2 tak nampak. Alhamdullilah, kerana masih terbukti ada orang kita yang bangga dirinya mengatasi segala.
I am a traveller. Been to many places, seen and met many malaysians living and visiting places away from Malaysia.
Paling seronok ialah bila malaysians sudah menguntum senyuman walau pun masih tak terjangkau tangan untuk bersalaman. Bertegur sapa, bertanya khabar,
"Dari mana? Jalan2 ka tinggal sini?"
I am a lucky traveller. Have personally met so many kind hearted Malaysians; mostly strangers who have been warm and kind. In all those cases we parted as friends.
But I have not been lucky all the time. There was this one incident when I was in a city somewhere in Europe. Met this couple with a son aged about 6 tagging onto his mother's coat.
I thought she looked familiar, and her husband looked familiar too. The kind of familiarity which made me said to myself, "Eh I've seen them before....but where was it?!!"
So, i smiled...and approached with a greeting. MyW chose to stay on at the cloth rack of the mega store. He took one look at me....sneered, and looked at his wife and said loud enough for me to hear, "Tak kenal pun nak tegur!".
He could be about mid-to-early thirties. Younger than me.....
Age in a Malaysian culture plays a role as far as I know. When everything else is unknown, then one respects another who looks older. The flip side of that is, if the respect is not given - then the older person would feel more hurt than say, in the western society.
So i was hurt. I turned back to MyW who saw that I was offended, and she soothed my pain with a " Tak per la bang, dia orang busy nak shopping tu".
I left it at that. I never got to find out who they were, but until today after like six years i still remember not only the incident but also their faces vividly.
Perhaps, the hyper wealthy air of Harrods in the Knightsbridge have given them an altitude sickness - of flying too high on their own ego.
I have recently came across a community of malaysian doctors living abroad. Almost all have purchased their own houses, with intention to stay for a long haul. They were the most humble, hospitable and closely knitted malaysian community I have seen anywhere abroad.
At one of the dinner invitations, the host asked me " What is your impression of Dublin?"
I gave a quick fire of my impressions;
- That you guys are very closely knitted, more like relatives than friends.
- The practice of Islam is very apparent, where most would seek place to pray when it was time for prayer.
- You are all doing very well, and I am actually proud to see Malaysians doing so well abroad.
However, I rarely see Malaysians abroad integrating with the locals.
My personal view is a Malaysian abroad would gain much more if he makes an effort to intergrate with the locals. Afterall, part of benefits in living abroad is to widen our own outlook to different cultures and make new friends, especially the culture of the host country and friends from a global village. Our children, I must say, are all doing great at this.
It was a realisation moment for me when one day I accompanied my son to a birthday party for one of his friends. There were about 20 kids boys and girls, and I can see no less than ten different nationalities. And how they played and enjoyed each other's company - transgressing the colour of their skin or the passport they hold. One day, I hope to see Luqman grow up to be more tolerant of diversity and more appreciative .....that as long as we are human, no matter what our nationality is we can be friends and be nice to each other.
I myself am living in the Middle East - the gate way city to Mekah and Medinah. Tonight, when I was on YM with a friend who is living abroad as well, an Arab friend rang my door bell - stopping by for coffee. That is just lovely! It is not a culture for Arabs to just stop by. It is however our Malaysian culture. I am happy to see him adapting to my culture - to me a sign of friendship which has surpassed the surface of having small talk about the weather.
I greeted him at the door with a hug and kisses to his right, then left and finally right cheek. Not our culture to kiss another man - but in this case it is me adapting to his culture. That is only an example to illustrate my point about intergration.
No matter what, where or how long a Malaysian has lived abroad - he or she will always miss Malaysia and harbour dreams and hope to return. But everytime he/she goes back for holiday to homeland Malaysia - there is something that is not quite right. After spending three nights in a hotel room, and after seeing how everyone is busy with their own lives - our Malaysian guests start to miss their own home. And when that plane takes off the KLIA tarmac - they breath easy and feel relieve - that they are going 'home'.
Malaysia will always be a home away from home.
Why Malaysians abroad want to return to Malaysia
Below are a few of the reasons
1) Feels at home,
2) Familiarity
3) Food
4) Family
5) Friends
So what is stopping many Malaysians from coming back home
1) Financial
2) Foreign exchange
3) Quality of education - eroding fast
4) Lack of job opportunities
5) High cost of living relative to wage
7) Faith - lack of it in the Government under the current administration
8) Freedom - lack of it, in term of living one's life the way one want to live it.
If we take a closer look at the education of Malaysia in general with that of Singapore we are being left behind. NUS is climbing up the ranks but UM is sliding like there is no tomorrow. Even Thailand university seems to be moving in the right direction. Our ASEAN cousins are hungry for success but we are feeling relax and unaware of the competition surrounding Malaysia. My greatest worry is when Malaysia runs out of oil and gas, where will Malaysia stand. Singapore without a single drop of oil can achieve about the same GDP as Malaysia economy in USD terms. We cant always rely on oil and devaluation to make our goods competitive. Now China and Thailand cars are swarming the world. It is etiher we embrace the world or we force our citizen to put up the fact that people outside Malaysia can enjoy quality cars but Malaysian will need to pay more to enjoy the same things.
Isn't it interesting to see, most of reason why Malaysians abroad want to come home and miss Malaysia has got to do with emotion. They are reasons ruled by the heart.
While the reasons why they don't come back are actually logical reasons from their heads.
Perhaps, if our government exercise a bit more brain power in improving in those areas such as education and employment, then we will start to see a reversal of brain drain back into our beloved country Malaysia.
posted by Idham @ 1/09/2007 01:56:00 AM
12 Comments
