Last night, I meet-up with three old friends at Devi’s Corner in Bangsar. One of them I have never met since varsity days. He is Sutung Umar RS, a writer (short stories and poems) and journalist (formerly with Berita Harian). He is now a freelance writer. The other two guys whom I do meet (though once a year) were Riffien (my brother angkat) attached to Maybank and Hasnuddin (Ambassdor to Jordan and Iraq). We talked about varsity days and wondered what happened to other friends, some of whom we bumped into and some we don’t know their whereabouts.
Sutung did brought-up some interesting issues. He said Malaysians don’t read quality materials, they like to flip through newspapers or books but don’t really take time to ponder matters written in the articles. He was telling how the sales of Berita Harian went down but the sales of Harian Metro went-up. Malaysians like to read sensational things and gossips (yeah, in fact every person u meet will gossip about something). He was also telling us, Malaysians don’t write quality things now because the writers cater for the taste of the younger generations who like sensational and mysterious things. That’s why the sales of Mangga or URTV are sustainable and even make profits but sales of magazines such as Dewan Sastera or Masyarakat are trending downwards. Then, he went on telling us that he is involved in MakYong and Main Teri (Its “main teri” and not main puteri). He said most of the books on our traditional Malay culture were written by foreigners (though they made some factual errors). The reference books for Wayang Kulit, Mak Yong and even Batik printing were all authored by foreigners. He said that during the colonial days, the administrators who were mostly Englishmen wrote lots of books on Malay culture. Now, our own administrators hardly read what more to write.
Then, we went on to talk about the younger generation’s attitude. The ambassador was worried on the findings of a study carried by one of the local university on attitudes towards corruption. The study indicated that more than 30% of the university students interviewed feel it’s not wrong to take bribe and they will take bribe when they are employed in the future. It’s worrying. What when wrong. Is our society too materialistic. The study was conducted in 2002 and these students must be in the workforce either government or private sectors. Some of them will be policy makers in a couple of years. The leaders, on one hand, preaching on integrity, transparency, honesty and all those good values (of course, preaching alone won’t make the difference – walk the talk). On the other hand, the products we are creating to lead the nation in the future is worrying.
We left at 1.00 am with lots of questions unanswered
Note: I always and will always say money is not everything in life. Work hard to achieve but on the right path. Live with whatever you have achieved.
Sutung did brought-up some interesting issues. He said Malaysians don’t read quality materials, they like to flip through newspapers or books but don’t really take time to ponder matters written in the articles. He was telling how the sales of Berita Harian went down but the sales of Harian Metro went-up. Malaysians like to read sensational things and gossips (yeah, in fact every person u meet will gossip about something). He was also telling us, Malaysians don’t write quality things now because the writers cater for the taste of the younger generations who like sensational and mysterious things. That’s why the sales of Mangga or URTV are sustainable and even make profits but sales of magazines such as Dewan Sastera or Masyarakat are trending downwards. Then, he went on telling us that he is involved in MakYong and Main Teri (Its “main teri” and not main puteri). He said most of the books on our traditional Malay culture were written by foreigners (though they made some factual errors). The reference books for Wayang Kulit, Mak Yong and even Batik printing were all authored by foreigners. He said that during the colonial days, the administrators who were mostly Englishmen wrote lots of books on Malay culture. Now, our own administrators hardly read what more to write.
Then, we went on to talk about the younger generation’s attitude. The ambassador was worried on the findings of a study carried by one of the local university on attitudes towards corruption. The study indicated that more than 30% of the university students interviewed feel it’s not wrong to take bribe and they will take bribe when they are employed in the future. It’s worrying. What when wrong. Is our society too materialistic. The study was conducted in 2002 and these students must be in the workforce either government or private sectors. Some of them will be policy makers in a couple of years. The leaders, on one hand, preaching on integrity, transparency, honesty and all those good values (of course, preaching alone won’t make the difference – walk the talk). On the other hand, the products we are creating to lead the nation in the future is worrying.
We left at 1.00 am with lots of questions unanswered
Note: I always and will always say money is not everything in life. Work hard to achieve but on the right path. Live with whatever you have achieved.
6 comments:
yes, i agree wif you on the fact that we malaysians don't read quality materials.
the other day, when that dude from time/forbes magazine came over to sell the mags, he told us that malaysians only read like a few pages of a book in a year. geddit? A YEAR!!! how worrying. and i'm pretty much sure, times and forbes and fortune ain't part of the reading list. probably some corny novels like "kembang tak jadi" or "cinta kasih di pelangi hati". kalau takde perkataan hati, kasih, cinta, nafsu, seks (ok, i just made this up hahahahahah) mmg tak sah! harummppphhhh.
even when i go up to mph to look for any of the sasterawans books, i would find all the local masters placed somewhere in a corner, very small corner, not even wif their full collection. mengarut betul. i could only find a couple of my dad's books, some a.samad said's, probably like a few of usman awang's. but none on keris mas, or arenawati. in fact, i think not many people know who the hell the sasterawans are.
on the younger generation wif the corruption thingy, seriously, it is quite shocking! i didn't know that they would actually take up bribes. this is very very serious. not only we are lack of leaders and do-ers in our younger malaysians, but now we have bribers wannabes. ish. we need quality graduates - quality inside out.
i have said enough. will speak to you soon.
How can you determine the reliability of the survey as the students nowadays do not take surveys seriously. They most probably will provide answers which contradicts with their own opinion just for the sake of having "fun". They dont see the consequences or sensitivity of their answers to the survey. So i feel its not fair for you to come to such conclusion based on one survey.Of course again it shows the lack of responsibility of the "younger generation" (that you are so worried of)
I have been reading your articles and following closely your writing career with interest. Hope to read more.
Adios.
phewiiiiiiittttttttttt!
you've got a stalker, sir :) well done!!!! hahahahahahahahahah.
Dear Ruby
i'm not giving any conclusion, I’m just pointing out the findings of a study. Of course, the study carried out by a local university lecturer may have flaws but the lecturer would have studied the methodology and try to minimise errors. Well, like you said may be the students are irresponsible. But again I talked to many university lecturers, well most of them said students now are different, they are too materialistic and their moral values are much lower. Everybody have to be blamed, policy makers have been stressing too much on economic prosperity then giving equal attention to values, parents are too busy, teachers only teach during school hours (however, the commitment of most of the teachers are also questionable), so that leaves the students to hang around with their peers (lepak). They learn all kind of things both good and bad. And you know what happens after that. The idea of me writing a lot about younger generation is for them to open-up their third eye. In this era of stiff global competition we need resilient, hardworking, transparent and capable younger generation, if the country wants to be on par with others. We are not talking about threats like in the olden days, where countries go to war to show their superiority and dominate others (Of course US is an outlier). It is through economic, information, technology and now knowledge power. The global super powers can dominate us even without coming near us. It is happening in Latin America and Africa. It may come to Malaysia one day if the younger generations who are going to be future leaders don’t see the bigger picture. Anyway, thank you, for giving an interest in my writings.
ok. first of all, i am not ruby. and ruby is not sillytoe.
you see, that is one thing worrying me. we don't have backup plans. meaning, i don't see, yet, any future leaders from the younger generation capable of steering the country and put it back on track. what ruby and yourself commented is true and as i read between the lines, it all bogs down to EDUCATION. a pakistani friend from london would stress again and again to myself "sillytoe, we muslims don't have anything left! except for knowledge. education is the one thing that can unite us all! knowledge is power!"
yes, knowledge is power. and we must differentiate knowledge and information. most of us are drowing in information, but starving for knowledge.
sorry, spelling mistake.
drowing = DROWNING.
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