Daily Lessons from Life 12 September 2014 - Dr M: I failed to change lazy Malays

"Dr M: I failed to change lazy Malays - The Star/Asia News Network  Sep 12, 2014

PETALING JAYA - Malays do not feel ashamed of failures anymore, lamented Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He admitted that he failed to change the mentality of the Malays in his 22 years as prime minister. "I spend 22 years trying to change the Malays but I admit I failed. However, there are a few success stories," he said in his remarks after launching a book by Anas Zubedy on Thursday.

Dr Mahathir lamented at the laziness of the Malays saying "if anyone asks me today, I would have to say Malays are lazy." He said the men would become Mat Rempit, referring to groups of youths road-racing on their motorcycles at night, when they failed.

This is evident in the gender breakdown in public universities. "During my school time, if we fail our examination we feel embarassed. "Seventy per cent of the students in our higher learning institution are female and only 30 per cent are male. "What happen to the male students? They are not stupid, perhaps they are lazy. If we no longer feel such embarassment, we might fail," he said in his speech.

He noted that he had put several initiatives to change the Malay mindset, including the Look East Policy in 1982, as he admired Japan's determination in rebuilding their country post-World War Two.

"We must learn from the Japan on how they rose from nothing to become one of the top economies in the world," he said. "The Japanese feel ashamed if they fail. They take everything seriously," he said.

Anas' book "#Wahai Melayu" is an initiative to inspire and motivate young Malay entrepreneurs as well as to change the stereotype of Malay as "a lazy race".

Written both in Bahasa Malaysia and English, Anas echoed the view that "Allah will not change the fate of the Malays if we Malays do not want to change ourselves." "The theme underpins the struggle of the community in ensuring the Malays continued existence in the modern day rat race in a globalised era," he said.""

A bold admission and ONLY Dr M can make that statement without raising any irks from the Malay community.

Lessons for me are:

1. social experiment is difficult. This is especially so when trying to change 'mind-set' and actual behaviours. Mr LKY admitted defeat too when he said: 'I will not see gracefulness in Singaporeans in my lifetime.' despite having initiated so many courtesy campaigns over the last few decades;

2. while I am encouraged by the writing of this book, I am a bit surprise that the author mentioned: 'Allah will not change the fate of the Malays if we Malays do not want to change ourselves.' Bringing religion into the process of mind-set and ultimately behavioural change is not helpful. Change can only be effective when the person or people want to change. Of course, influencing tactics can include invoking the wraths of some 'super power beings' like God, Allah and etc if the people do not change;

3. for people to change, what are the motivation? Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory said that each person is primarily motivated by survival needs and progress to the ultimate self-actualisation needs in different stages and/or 'sustained' circumstances of his/her life. The macro environment definitely influence the thoughts and hence the behaviours of the person.

e.g Singapore almost got to the 'developed stage' of clearing after yourself when MacDonald first came to Singapore more than a decade ago. It is REVOLUTIONARY to clear your table, dump the rubbish away and put the tray back in the 'Tray Return' top!

Alas, somewhere along the line, we have 'older workers' cleaning in MacDonald restaurant! We have maids at home clearing up without our kids lifting a finger if their parents don't want them to!

Now, after we REGRESSED for some many years, we want to start the: 'Clear after yourself' and 'Tray Return' behaviours again.

Malays are NOT lazy. They are just enjoying the benefits brought upon them by the system and the macro environment. There is no need to be 'not lazy'. That is a good motivation when you do nothing or very little and you get out-sized rewards.

Any other races WOULD have behaved the same eventually living in the same environment!!

So, Dr M, you have not failed unless you are the Creator of that environment!!!