“Wrong to assume Chinese favour their kind for they’re brutally ruthless in making buying decision”

 

KAWAN or no kawan, a business must ultimately stand on its own two feet by providing quality products or services. All else is moot, especially the race of the entrepreneur.

This was the gist of a post on Facebook by well-known publicist Tai Zee Kin in reaction to a “one thread” which urged the Malay community to support Malay entrepreneurs, while naming the Chinese as an example for behaving in likewise manner.

The founder of Zen Communications begged to differ, stating that this was not the case as the Chinese are well-known for making practical decisions. Chinese businesses are thus forced to be more creative to earn its crust.

In fact, it can even be argued that the Chinese are merciless towards their own kind in the business sphere. If a product or service is not up to scratch, the best it can hope for is three months before it folds up and the vendor will have to just move on.

“The Chinese are ruthless whereby weaklings are constantly weeded out, thus leading to a thriving business environment,” observed the communication strategist.

Compare and contrast that with the Malay community whom he described as “extremely generous of heart” who are willing to support their brethren even when the product or service is substandard.

“This attitude though sends the wrong signals as Malay businesses think everything is OK,” cautioned Tai.

It was posited that the Chinese are simple – if a product or service is good, they are willing to queue for hours to buy regardless of the vendor’s ethnicity. However, if the converse was true, the Chinese would forsake even a friend’s shop.

“If a product or service is good, the Chinese are willing to queue for hours to buy regardless of the vendor’s ethnicity” (Image credit: Kelvin Ooi/Facebook)

If the intention is to help one’s own race, then do it correctly by sending the right messages and forcing Malay businesses to improve was Tai’s ultimate advice.

His post has generated 1.7K likes, 382 comments and 238 shares at the time of writing with many commenters keen to share their take on the topic of race-based business decision-making.

One Malay commenter argued he would never spend his hard-earned dough on something he does not need.

If it’s of quality, represents good value and something he wanted, he will spend the money, not because the vendor is from the same ethnic group.

He further lamented that too many Malay businesses trot out the sorry excuse of Malays not supporting their own kind when in fact the pricing, quality and business model is not on point. Stop recycling old ideas was the clear message here.

The lack of exposure between the races was also cited as a cause for this myopic view that each race was only interested in supporting their own kind.

It was stressed that getting to know other races is integral towards preserving harmony and avoiding conflicts.

Citing that quality was the key determining factor, this commenter proclaimed he would not support Malay businesses that fail to maintain proper QC (quality control).

One observer declared that as a “sane and rationale individual”, he never let racial sentiments determine such daily decisions. He went on to wonder how long do Malay businesses expect to leverage on racial sentiments in order to prosper.

Summing up the Chinese perspective quite neatly, one commenter used a well-known Cantonese saying that roughly translates to “cheap, pretty, got quality” to emphasise the values that drive consumer thinking.

It was also noted that many Chinese pray to the God of Fortune and that prosperity or wealth had nothing to do with race or religion.

Sound advice and observations indeed. But will the rightist faction finally accept that competition is good and not a mere ploy to undermine one’s own race? –  Focus Malaysia