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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com Please.
==================================
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com Please.
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Wednesday August 1, 2007
Salute to the man in the street
There are lots of ordinary unsung heroes out there, unrecognised and unappreciated. These are the people who deserve to be honoured.
MUSINGS
BY MARINA MAHATHIR
AS PART of our upcoming Merdeka celebrations, a local TV station had a poll for people to name the most outstanding Malaysians since 1957. As people had to vote for the “winners” a la Akademi Fantasia, the poll attracted much controversy and derision.
But what I thought was interesting was that everyone on the list of nominees had already passed on. Which seems to suggest that nobody living deserves any such accolades.
There is something to be said in that. At the moment, there are no living persons in leadership positions in this country that deserve any sort of accolade.
If anything, they probably deserve the equivalent of the “Razzies”, the annual “non-Oscars” that people give to the worst actors, worst directors and worst films, rather than the best.
In fact, if anyone decided to do a poll for the Worst Malaysians Award, I bet there would be no shortage of nominees.
At the top of the list would be various politicians. For instance, those in Parliament who forgot that they had mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, insulted all women, and were completely unrepentant about it.
Then there are all the ones baying for the blood of bloggers, as if bloggers are the root of all evil in this country, and not their own inadequacies.
I would not only name them the Worst Malaysians in the Past 50 Years but also the most ignorant and imbecilic.
None of them actually know what a blog is or what a blogger does, yet are happy to label them all sorts of names, including unpatriotic, unprofessional and liars.
Funnily enough, they also label bloggers “not read by many” and “goblok” (stupid), which apparently means “political bloggers”. That is a sure sign that some people just have no clue.
I would also give a Sharp-Box-on-the-Ears award to those who could have reprimanded bad behaviour among their colleagues, but did not, just for political expediency.
Quite obviously something happens to the brains of people in politics, where they think that everyone only thinks in terms of elections, instead of sheer human decency.
So their rule is “never tell off one of our own because that would give the opposition an opportunity to hit us”. What they forget is that the rest of us are watching, in total disgust.
Of course it’s not only politicians who deserve the Worst Malaysians Awards. Leaving aside total criminals, drivers who don’t signal and who throw rubbish out of their car windows, I would nominate the civil servants who make life for us more difficult than it needs to be.
I would nominate those people who give you an appointment and when you turn up, are out at a meeting that involves lots of teh tarik and kuih.
As a subsidiary nomination, I would put up those who work under the missing bureaucrats who cannot tell you when their bosses are supposed to be back, sometimes hazarding a guess like “maybe in a few weeks or months”.
Meantime, a small consideration might speed up whatever processes you were hoping to go through.
I’d also put up salespersons who have no idea what it is they are selling and are too lazy to go and find out. High on the list would be those to whom you pose a question and who go off supposedly to find the answer and never come back.
People who have bad toilet habits are of course natural nominees but somehow you can’t help think that they’ve been covered already among those listed earlier.
After all, not flushing, or throwing inappropriate stuff down, the loo are selfish and ignorant acts, and that is pretty much what’s common among my earlier nominations.
I would also like to nominate those people who are so quick to judge people they don’t know, just based on appearance or their own prejudices.
In particular, those people who articulate, for want of a better word, those same judgments and prejudices as loudly as possible so that other people cannot put in a word in defence.
If we sit down and think about it, there are really a lot of people we could nominate. Which in a way is rather sad really. Maybe this is always what makes news, those people who do bad things, while those who do good things rarely or never do.
Despite my grouchiness, I do believe that there are lots of ordinary unsung heroes out there, unrecognised and unappreciated.
So my nomination for Best Malaysians are all those ordinary people who every day go about helping someone out, being nice to someone else, making no judgments and expecting no rewards.
So here’s to celebrating the ordinary Malaysian. It’s high time someone recognised them.
Salute to the man in the street
There are lots of ordinary unsung heroes out there, unrecognised and unappreciated. These are the people who deserve to be honoured.
MUSINGS
BY MARINA MAHATHIR
AS PART of our upcoming Merdeka celebrations, a local TV station had a poll for people to name the most outstanding Malaysians since 1957. As people had to vote for the “winners” a la Akademi Fantasia, the poll attracted much controversy and derision.
But what I thought was interesting was that everyone on the list of nominees had already passed on. Which seems to suggest that nobody living deserves any such accolades.
There is something to be said in that. At the moment, there are no living persons in leadership positions in this country that deserve any sort of accolade.
If anything, they probably deserve the equivalent of the “Razzies”, the annual “non-Oscars” that people give to the worst actors, worst directors and worst films, rather than the best.
In fact, if anyone decided to do a poll for the Worst Malaysians Award, I bet there would be no shortage of nominees.
At the top of the list would be various politicians. For instance, those in Parliament who forgot that they had mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, insulted all women, and were completely unrepentant about it.
Then there are all the ones baying for the blood of bloggers, as if bloggers are the root of all evil in this country, and not their own inadequacies.
I would not only name them the Worst Malaysians in the Past 50 Years but also the most ignorant and imbecilic.
None of them actually know what a blog is or what a blogger does, yet are happy to label them all sorts of names, including unpatriotic, unprofessional and liars.
Funnily enough, they also label bloggers “not read by many” and “goblok” (stupid), which apparently means “political bloggers”. That is a sure sign that some people just have no clue.
I would also give a Sharp-Box-on-the-Ears award to those who could have reprimanded bad behaviour among their colleagues, but did not, just for political expediency.
Quite obviously something happens to the brains of people in politics, where they think that everyone only thinks in terms of elections, instead of sheer human decency.
So their rule is “never tell off one of our own because that would give the opposition an opportunity to hit us”. What they forget is that the rest of us are watching, in total disgust.
Of course it’s not only politicians who deserve the Worst Malaysians Awards. Leaving aside total criminals, drivers who don’t signal and who throw rubbish out of their car windows, I would nominate the civil servants who make life for us more difficult than it needs to be.
I would nominate those people who give you an appointment and when you turn up, are out at a meeting that involves lots of teh tarik and kuih.
As a subsidiary nomination, I would put up those who work under the missing bureaucrats who cannot tell you when their bosses are supposed to be back, sometimes hazarding a guess like “maybe in a few weeks or months”.
Meantime, a small consideration might speed up whatever processes you were hoping to go through.
I’d also put up salespersons who have no idea what it is they are selling and are too lazy to go and find out. High on the list would be those to whom you pose a question and who go off supposedly to find the answer and never come back.
People who have bad toilet habits are of course natural nominees but somehow you can’t help think that they’ve been covered already among those listed earlier.
After all, not flushing, or throwing inappropriate stuff down, the loo are selfish and ignorant acts, and that is pretty much what’s common among my earlier nominations.
I would also like to nominate those people who are so quick to judge people they don’t know, just based on appearance or their own prejudices.
In particular, those people who articulate, for want of a better word, those same judgments and prejudices as loudly as possible so that other people cannot put in a word in defence.
If we sit down and think about it, there are really a lot of people we could nominate. Which in a way is rather sad really. Maybe this is always what makes news, those people who do bad things, while those who do good things rarely or never do.
Despite my grouchiness, I do believe that there are lots of ordinary unsung heroes out there, unrecognised and unappreciated.
So my nomination for Best Malaysians are all those ordinary people who every day go about helping someone out, being nice to someone else, making no judgments and expecting no rewards.
So here’s to celebrating the ordinary Malaysian. It’s high time someone recognised them.
