Malaysia? Where is that? – N. Armo

“You are from Malaysia, where is that?” was a normal question I had to answer whenever I introduced myself to people in the United Kingdom. My standard reply will be “You know where Thailand and Singapore is? We are in between.”

That’s when I hear the “ooos and aaahs” of acknowledgement. Well, you may call them ignorant for not knowing our location, but I believe it is our fault that we haven’t made an impact like Singapore or Thailand on the global stage where it is easy for people to know us.

“But people know Thailand for historical reasons! We cannot change the past!” So be it, but people know Singapore for the present and for all the right reasons. Why can’t we work towards achieving those standards? We are geographically and demographically similar but what makes them better?So what is Singapore busy doing? Singapore, my friend, is busy competing with Hong Kong to be Asia’s financial hub, striking trade deals with major global economies, attracting talent and multinationals to their country… Singapore is working towards prosperity. What about Malaysia? Hmm, let’s see… harping on issue of the use of “Allah”, wasting time tearing up proposals in Parliament, busy giving lame excuses to every single

hopeless issue happening in the country, for example, the prime minister's electricity bills, the guns lost in the middle of the sea (supposedly), the dumb justification for hiring a ridiculous number of civil servants and the list goes on and on and on.

But... but... you’re not looking at the good stuff at all!

I can’t seem to think of any good stuff as it has been overshadowed by unnecessary statements, ridiculous spending and dumb policies. Let me tell you that government services,like MyEG and passport renewals, are more efficient now. However, this does not solve the underlying issue of why we are still behind time. Still not increasing in productivity and still lacking in foresight. This is stuff that should have been sorted out a long time ago not now in the 21st century. The 21st century is the time to take advantage of technology or for the economy to prosper to carve a name in the present. What are our excuses (logical ones…) if Singapore is able to do ten-fold of what we did or are doing in 50 years? What went wrong?

It is about time we considered the ideas of the younger generation and not brush them off. We are all brimming with ideas – all we need is for an avenue to be heard and taken into consideration. The old ways don’t seem to be working so what harm is there if we decide to tap into new ideas now? If we don’t buck up, the existence of Gen Y will be pointless as we would be suppressed by those in power and soon it will be a cycle of monkey see, monkey do. I’d rather not live in a cyclical world where I would be suppressed continuously for having ideas, for thinking differently and for not doing what the monkey did.