WHAT WENT WRONG IN MALAYSIA? IS IT ALREADY PAST THE POINT OF NO RETURN?

These are my own opinions, so here we go:

I can think of a few… greed… obsession over material wealth… But if you want to go right down to it, the problem with us is integrity.

“What is that?”

Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain (Personal gain! we’ll get to that in a moment).

In Malay we call it ‘jati diri’. When we are given a task, a responsibility, a role, our integrity determines how well we can fulfill it according to the specifications and constraints. Almost everything requires integrity.

Everything, you say?

Oh yes. You can call it a moral compass or a conscience, to be fair and not be greedy, to do good and not lie, to play by the rules and not cheat – all of those are your integrity.

“But playing by the rules is disadvantageous because everyone cheats.”

And that, my dear sir, is exactly the problem.

• Politicians lie and scheme and skimming money off projects and know this but do it… because they lack integrity.
• Contractors over-inflate their costs and use sub-par materials in construction and they are well aware of this but go ahead anyway… because they lack integrity.
• Lawmakers pass laws that are advantageous to a select few and disadvantageous to many and they do this despite knowing where it goes… because they lack integrity.
• Bosses tell their staff to work hard and preach the importance of honest work then turn around and use company funds for personal use without feeling guilty… because they lack integrity.

We tell little boys and girls about the importance of ‘jati diri’, we tout the virtue of living straight, we exhort to them that lying, cheating, short-selling, being dishonest are sins…

And then override it all by stressing the importance of material wealth and personal gain in life.

“Nobody will want you if you don’t have a good job”

“Nobody will respect you if you drive a beat up car”

“Nobody will marry you if you don’t have a house”

“You aren’t successful until you have a job paying more than 10k a month, a nice house and an imported car.”

The first two are my own, spoken to me by my own relatives for as long as I can remember. That last bit is a declaration by a friend of mine, who is searching for a husband. She may not represent the entire population, but her sentiments are shared by many.

For a long time, I was getting conflicting messages. Here’s people telling me about integrity. And here’s the same people telling me to acquire all the wealth and personal gain that I can, often becoming upset with me when I chose integrity over money. Sure once or twice was cute, but honey, you can cheat a little if nobody’s looking okay?

No it’s not okay. That’s the thing about integrity – you live it even when people aren’t looking! When I protest, they roll their eyes and sigh. Don’t be so straight and strict. You’ll never succeed this way.

So in the end the message most children/teens/youths get is: “Be honest, but if you can gain something by cheating or lying or skimming off money without getting caught, go for it!”

And then twenty, thirty years down the road, when those same youths have taken over the country we wonder why is our country so messed up.

So what am I doing about it?

I hold on to my integrity and always try to make a choice based on values, not personal gain. It’s not about me, it’s about my people. It’s about our future. It’s about patriotism and loving your country and not wanting to see it fucked in fifty years.

I’m not perfect, but I try not to cheat or lie or short-change anyone. Because as a teacher I know that it’s not just the stuff you deliver in the classroom that matters – it’s how you behave as a role model 24 hours a day. You can’t pretend it – you have to believe it, and live it. Only then, when I preach about integrity to my students will they believe me and have any hope of building their own integrity. And this little seed I sow will be passed on to the next generation. It may be small, but I know so long as I keep persevering teaching the right things to my students, it will have an effect on future generations.

Pass it on!

– https://www.quora.com