Not really.
At least not immediately.
It's too ingrained in our society.
Whether we like it or not, it's the way we are.
We have been conditioned to be like that for so long.
Our values are profit driven.
Honesty, loyalty, sincerity, ethics, saving the environment, etc are values which are of secondary importance in our society.
It's because upholding those values is not seen as profitable.
Primary to us are things that can immediately generate profit for us.
We don't really care how it's done as long as the end result is that we have more money, which ensure us a good material life and security.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that money is the most important thing to us.
Having money means having power, influence, respect....and even love.
We are at awe whenever we talk about or in the presence of people with lots of money.
Even the Muslims in this country who claimed that their religion is the most important thing for them succumbed to this value system.
This value system was shaped by the mixture of cultures which came to our land over the centuries.
Maybe one day this will change.
But I don't think it will be in my lifetime.
For now, we can only mitigate this ugly way we value things in life.
We do what we can, which is not really too bad.
We talk a bit about the importance of all those good values and try to practice it in our life.
But it's not really our natural values.
Our societal demands require us to chase after monetary gains with whatever means at our disposal.
Fail to do that and we are doomed to be considered as failures by other members of our society.
I know, it's even worse in some other societies.
But why compare to them.
Let's set a benchmark comparable with the more advanced societies.
Hopefully, maybe, long after we pass away from this world, our future generation may attain what we wish for ourselves.
Here is an example of possible model society with good value system pointed out by a regular commentator of this blog;
Dear Annie.
I have worked in Japan. A month or two, each time. What I notice about the Japanese; they are very honest and law abiding citizen. Their punk and Trojan-haired teenager even wait for the traffic-light to turn green at mid-night, when there were hardly any traffic at all.
I once left a bag with 6 SLR cameras + long focal length lenses, belonging to my company. When I returned to that station, an hour later, frantically searching for the bag, the station master came-up to me, asking what I was looking for. I produce the invoice my company gave, with all the cameras serial numbers, he asked me to follow him to his office, compared the s/no. of the cameras in the bag with that on the invoice, then surprisingly bowed to me and said 'arigato' and return the bag to me.
Japanese too, do not tend to show-off their wealth too much like we Malaysian. Riding the trains, you can't differentiate the house belonging to the poor and the wealthy.
The neighborhood where I live, I had known people who refinanced their house so that they can afford to renovate it into mansion.
Therefore I fully supported your advice given to those Johor's elites:-
"And one more thing, Khaled, please tell your boys to stop flashing their luxury cars around and playing golf in KL. Don't make it too obvious. People are talking, okay."
I have worked in Japan. A month or two, each time. What I notice about the Japanese; they are very honest and law abiding citizen. Their punk and Trojan-haired teenager even wait for the traffic-light to turn green at mid-night, when there were hardly any traffic at all.
I once left a bag with 6 SLR cameras + long focal length lenses, belonging to my company. When I returned to that station, an hour later, frantically searching for the bag, the station master came-up to me, asking what I was looking for. I produce the invoice my company gave, with all the cameras serial numbers, he asked me to follow him to his office, compared the s/no. of the cameras in the bag with that on the invoice, then surprisingly bowed to me and said 'arigato' and return the bag to me.
Japanese too, do not tend to show-off their wealth too much like we Malaysian. Riding the trains, you can't differentiate the house belonging to the poor and the wealthy.
The neighborhood where I live, I had known people who refinanced their house so that they can afford to renovate it into mansion.
Therefore I fully supported your advice given to those Johor's elites:-
"And one more thing, Khaled, please tell your boys to stop flashing their luxury cars around and playing golf in KL. Don't make it too obvious. People are talking, okay."
ReplyDeleteOur obsessive measure of success adinda Ms Annie
is commercial success regardless of the means,
really way some ahead of education.
" Telah menjadi resam dunia,
Hidup manusia memandang harta.
Buruk dan baik tiada bezanya,
Emas suasa jadi nilainya"
-- J Sham in the 60s
Malays now have successful lives but almost universally looked down compared to the Chinese because of the apparent lack of entrepreneral/ commercial success. Strangely many despise the few Malay tycoons and successful Ustazs why ah(?)
Haji M Zin
Alor Gajah DPH
Every time I see a nice car with a Melayu inside. I have only one thing to say: corrupt chibai
DeleteWhat about so many huge big chauffeur-driven cars with with 10 or so Cina billionaires inside?
DeleteI got stronger words than cibai for you but won't say it out of respect for Annie.
Btw, you old man Cinapek ka? Spelling cibai the old way. Dirty old man, eh?
DeleteEvery time I see a nice car with a Cina inside, I have quite a few things to say: Liar, cheater, ahlong, gangster,smuggler, human trafficker, drug dealer, and anything else illicit and illegal the DAPigs can meddle in.
DeleteLet's have better expectations, Sdr ANON 21:47
and in-sya-Allah not ridicule each other, boleh?
( al-Quran, 49: 11 )
Haji M Zin
Alor Gajah DPH
We have no other choice on planet earth .......
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_GKCr8rq8
ReplyDeletere, Honestly , loyalty , sincerity , ethics , saving the environment ,
Wa tatak paham itu semua lea aa , tapi itu semua tatak bolih cari wang maa aa . Wa tatak tahu lea aa ,itu Uncle Lim atak paham tak ?.
Olang cekap, itu wang tatak golek datang maa aa , tapi kalau sutak golek datang ,tatak mau angkat memang boloh punya maa aa .
Sutak kaya balu bolih cekap pasat ethics maa aa ,itu pasat Bulayu manyak susah mau kaya maa aa ,manyak pikir pasat ethics lea aa . Tapi sikalang ramai Bulayu sutak kaya ,semua tatak pikir pasat ethic punya .
Malaysia punya lalam atak manyak undang-undang maa aa ,tapi semua bolih kasi tutup lengan wang maa aa , itu macam balu atak senang cali makan lor rr .
Itulah bila agama menjadi hanya simbolik. Yang korup, yang pengkhianat, yang mencuri agaknya bangsa mana...
ReplyDeleteHi Annie,
ReplyDelete"kecuali... erk, oui... encore en peu plus !
Terbaca satu penulisan "long reads" collumn dari penulis Roland Kelts mengenai Jepun lost's decade.
"The 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual ranking of the safest major cities in the world put Tokyo on top, with Japan’s second city, Osaka, at number three. While smaller and mid-sized Japanese cities betray some of the conventional signs of economic hardship (boarded-up storefronts and sparsely populated shopping malls), in a world beset by rising fanatical violence and rancorous racism and inequality, safety is nothing to sneeze at.
“Many would agree that the standard of living, particularly in big cities like Tokyo, has improved significantly in the so-called lost decades. The city’s skyline has been transformed; the quality of restaurants and services improved greatly. Despite the real stresses and strains and some genuine hardship, society has held together reasonably well. If this is what stagnation looks like, humanity could do a lot worse.”
What makes one society hold together “reasonably well”, while others fail? You have only to look to the Japanese language for insight. Common words such as ganbaru (to slog on tenaciously through tough times), gaman (enduring with patience, dignity and respect) and jishuku (restraining yourself according to others’ needs) convey a culture rooted in pragmatism and perseverance.
After the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northern Japan, the international media were awash with stories about the dignity and almost superhuman patience of survivors, many of whom peacefully waited hours in single-file lines for relief supplies, only to be turned away in the frigid weather and asked to try again the next day. No one rushed to the front; no one rioted. In shelters, meagre foodstuffs such as rice balls were split in half or into quarters to make sure that
all had something to eat.
Japan’s Blade Runner image of yesteryear – a futuristic amalgamation of hi-tech efficiency coursing through neon-lit, noirish alleyways in sexy, 24-hour cities – was really a blip in the nation’s history. Today, the country is more about quality of life than quantities of stuff. In its combination of restraint, frugality and civility, Japan may serve as one of our best societal models of sustenance for the future.
And,
Japan is still one of the richest, most civilised and convenient countries in the world.
“Do rich societies really need to get richer and richer indefinitely?”
Perbandingan di negara kita pula adalah disebaliknya dimana kekayaan/kejayaan itu bermaksud punya gelaran dan pangkat = $$$ dalam hidup tersangatlah "first" sehingga lebih sanggup mencemari yang sepatutnya dihindari, dan lihatlah berita hari ini bahawa seorang menteri hal ehwal "Islam" & isterinya yang dikatakan telah menyalahgunakan duit anak yatim dan miskin. Persoalannya sekarang, sampai bila orang Melayu yang mengaku Islam boleh ter...sampai hati memputarbelitkan duit amanah atas nama Islam kononnya tergamak berjoli sakan tanpa ada rasa berdosa !!! Hairan ya, katanya pabila sudah menunaikan haji diri seseorang itu telahpun dibersihmulia-sucikan seperti baru dilahirkan dan diri mereka akan dijauhkan dari tergamak melakukan apa sahaja kesalahan bernama DOSA, sebabnya pendinding diri sudah kuat: dah pergi ke tanahsuci ya ! Namun begitu, mengapa mereka berterusan bergelumang didalam DOSA? Karena...
"Honesty, loyalty, sincerity, ethics, saving the environment, etc are values which are of secondary importance in our society."
Annie, ayat-ayat bernada akhlak tersebut hanya disebut keluar sewaktu masa berucap di agenda perasmian rasmi sahaja bagi memikat hati sipendengar telinga separuh pekak dan environment/persekitaran alam semulajadi pula ramai berfikir begini: tebang satu pokok sepuluh akan tumbuh, sungai kering gersang tunggu musim hujan/monsoon-wet-rainy season penuh mengalir sarat balik jadinya apasal nak menggelabah... ramai bermentaliti tahap cetek !
à plus.
Jepun itu negara Kafir tetapi mencontohi semua yang di ajar dalam alquran. Sebaliknya, negara negara Islam mendabik Islam tetapi dalam kehidupan tonjolkan jahiliah.
Delete