Are the Malays losing their fine values?

It looks like times have changed, at least in the political sphere.

COMMENT

PETALING JAYA: When I was a kid growing up in the Malay-majority town of Kuantan, I was often told that the Malays are supposed to be polite and courteous and, especially towards their elders, deferential.

“Don’t raise your voice and don’t talk back at the elderly.”

So I learned to keep my mouth shut even when I disagreed with my parents or their friends.

But it seems that times have changed, at least in the political sphere. Gone are the fine values that the Malays used to be so proud of and which others used to admire. Nowadays, many Malay politicians are marked by their rudeness and uncouth behaviour.

We even have politicians in high positions using such degrading words as “senile” and “idiotic” to describe their rivals, including those who are much older than them.

We all remember the incident that took place a few weeks ago, when youths from PPBM and Umno proved their critics right, showing that they came from the same culture despite being in different political camps.

We heard the Umno Youth members calling their PPBM counterparts “wussies” and the latter shouting back “hooligans”.

Still, it is doubtful that many people expected the outrage that happened at last Sunday’s Nothing to Hide forum. A 92-year-old man who led the country for more than two decades had slippers, chairs and even flares thrown at him.

And instead of offering words of support to those who were injured in the ensuing melee, the nation’s leaders are pointing fingers at one another.

These leaders, most of whom are Malays, seem to be unaware that the more time they spend blaming one another, the less time they have to look at themselves and see that they are contributing to the death of Malay values.

No one, not from BN, Pakatan Harapan or PAS, thought to suggest that they put aside their political differences and sit down together to find ways of dealing with the sad state our nation is in.

It’s high time that these so-called leaders wake up and realise that their duty to this country goes beyond building an MRT or cleaning the country of corruption by forming a new government.

If the Malay leaders can’t lead by example, some time in the future, perhaps by 2050, we may see a transformation that’s a far cry from Transformasi Nasional 50. Will Malay culture be transformed into something that is characterised by name calling and chair throwing? - FMT