While you were sleeping

One of the things that I love about living in Malaysia is that nothing is ever really black or white. Everything is in shades of greys and I do very well in grey. 

I love visiting black and white countries where there are rules and enforcement, they offer me respite from the chaos but after a few weeks, my souls longs for the blurred lines, the mess and the in-between spaces. 

For me, the greys are street hawkers that appear at night and sell the best food and give soul to a place. Greys such as the neighbourhoods allowing one of their own to have a party well over 1am without complaints because it happens only once a year or being okay with them closing off the whole street without a permit for a wedding or a funeral.

But as I get older, the call for order and simplicity starts to grow increasingly louder. I look around and the chaos around me seems overwhelming.

Greys which seemed charming to me are now a sign of an underlying malaise. The greys are now being occupied by a new order. Things like form over function- a belief that, if it looks fabulous, it must be great. 

Everyone is so easily bedazzled by the visual, the sell, the fake narrative that they have forgotten the substance. The greys for me have come to represent living in some sort of matrix where everyone is trying to tell you that mediocrity is the best thing since sliced bread. Everything that once used to mean something has been co-opted and dumbed down to cater for the masses.

It starts with something really small, like changing the meaning of words - so you go to places that classify themselves as "fine dining" which are nothing more than upscale bistros. 

Shows that are a hodgepodge of work are said to be ‘"curated" when there has been little thought put into it. What often has been done well is the marketing and the spiel. This is a worldwide phenomenon - it also says a lot of when the word "sick" is now used to mean great.

I recognise that these attempts enable accessibility into an industry which is great news for startups and entrepreneurs. But there is another darker side to this – that of us sugarcoating words as a means to self-congratulate, to pat ourselves on the back. 

It’s can be a form of self-delusion, of creating big fishes in very tiny ponds as we continue to lower the bar for success. And that is something that I have observed in Malaysia, the way words like "respect" and "value" have been eroded through what seemed like inconsequential things.

I started noticing this around 20-plus years ago when the phenomenon of double-parking started. At that time, the double-parker would be highly apologetic and was very aware that they were causing an inconvenience to someone. 

This has slowly evolved to the present day to where people just double- park their car likes it’s their god-given right with nary a thought for the other. 

It has gotten so normal that there are now community announcements over the radio to be more considerate when double-parking – not, please don’t double-park but please have the courtesy to leave your number on the dashboard and yes, please answer the phone when someone calls you to remove your car. 

This symptomatic of a larger malaise which has resulted in the blatant flaunting of laws coupled with an overwhelmed law enforcement. 

So how did we get here? I believe this is closely connected to the politics of the city and the country. The reality we live in had its start in the 70s. It was the time when race-based politics came into practice and many patriots regardless of race, left to work in environments that ensured them and their colleagues' fair treatment and respect. 

Listening to their stories, many who emigrated say they left because they wanted to succeed off their own backs and not due to their race whilst other said they wanted a better future for their children who would be ensured fair treatment. That sent a clear message to many that if you wanted to be successful, the civil service was not an option. That was the first erosion.

The second erosion was the insidious creep of corruption. When corruption starts to reign supreme, people at government level start to prioritise money and patronage over people. 

City-makers of our forefathers used to have pride in their designs, benchmarking themselves against the best in the world. We used to pride ourselves in having one of the best civil service, the best judiciary. 

This started to unravel more in the 80s. It was the beginning of the phenomena of the self-serving leadership in this country – where absolute power corrupted absolutely. Dissenters were put in jail and democracy was dished out at the pleasure of the prime minister.

Corruption and patronage ensured that work was not necessarily awarded to the most deserving and so we the citizens become recipients of substandard work. Bad sidewalks, inconsistencies in the design of infrastructure, divided mass transportation systems that were designed not with the user in mind. 

Corruption has also meant that those in the govt who still have integrity are never the ones making the major decisions that affect your cities. They are the reason why on top of your taxes, you need to pay for increasing amounts of toll charges.

During this time of growth, the web of the matrix were already being spun. Citizens were told that it was time we put Malaysia onto the world stage and that we needed to build and build and develop and develop and that everyone, all Malaysians would prosper as a result. 

It was a time of mass shaming, of a prime minister who shamed the majority race calling them lazy. And to get out of this, was to shed their culture and adopt that of the Japanese – industrious and progressive. 

But social engineering never ever works out the way you desire and you now have a generation that has become disconnected to the values and culture that made them contented, wise and admirable. 

In the race towards material acquisition, many slid deeper into the matrix web happily believing that the government would look after us. Instead of keeping watch as it is our job as citizens, we cocooned ourselves into chasing the almighty ringgit. 

And not many were there to protect those that voiced out as many were too busy eking out a living – "Don’t rock the boat, lest you go to jail". And the net closed tighter around us.

And so 20 years later, we are left with a divided government. Those that are honest and those that aren’t. And because dishonesty comes from the top, those who are honest are disempowered and become disillusioned. 

Attempts to leave are difficult as they have already been caught too deep in the web of debt – from a whole host of government "perks", all designed to keep you bound and it does not stop there. These perks also extend to their children ensuring that the next generation is also kept in servitude and so the cycle never ends.

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LEE JIA PING is former programme director at Think City and honorary council member of the Heritage Trust of Malaysia. She now heads Tempatico, a consultancy that 'uses urban strategy, conservation and placemaking to build communities'. - Mkini