1/30/2005 02:31:00 AM|W|P|Vishen|W|P|Okay, once again Malaysian politicians are picking are fairly insignicant issue and blowing it out our proportion to gain press coverage. In this case - the issue is that Malaysian's are apparently becoming more rude. True. But the reasons provided by our local politicians are ridiculous... read on. The New Straits Time did not publish the letter below. Nope - they would'nt dare print letters that imply certain local politicians are not too bright. But Malaysiakini.com did print it - Bless The Internet! The recent interest by the government and the public on the issue of declining levels of courtesy and good values among Malaysians is timely; to solve a problem, you first have to admit you have one. Yet the majority of suggestions on solving this issue coming from the public and from politicians seem to lack subtle knowledge of human psychology. We assume Malaysians to be rude. Yet in the field of psychology it has been shown by several experiments (Hartshone & May in the 1920s, Zimbardo at Stanford in the 1970s) that humans are never always “rude”, “honest” or “polite”. People behave differently when put in different environments. For example, we conclude Malaysians are rude and inconsiderate based on observations of Malaysian driving habits. But take a Malaysian and place him in Northern California and he becomes a caring, polite member of society. Take a Northern Californian and place him in Malaysia and he becomes a rude, obnoxious driver. It is the environment that creates the psychological attribute. Psychological studies show that behavior is variant property and changes depending on one’s environment and the context of the situation. When observing others, humans tend to overestimate the influence of psychological factors and underestimate the influence of environmental ones. This is known as FAE or Fundamental Attribution Error. So to solve the issue of Malaysian rudeness, the Government must look at what factors of our environment cause us to become rude – not waste time on politeness campaigns. These environmental factors could be related to traffic congestion, government bureaucracy, or even declining standards in the service industry. The second problem occurring is that those members of the Public who do look at environmental factors seem to place an emphasis on conservative values. In the NST recently, two articles suggested that this problem of declining values could be alleviated by people becoming more religious or avoiding western dress in favor of local costumes. Both suggestions are based more on emotion than careful sociological study. Careful study of other countries shows the opposite. Take Norway for example. Norway is one of the least religious societies on earth. A mere 4% of Norwegians report going to church regularly. It is also a highly liberal society devoid of most sexual taboos. Yet Norway is by all accounts, one of the most honest and law abiding societies on Earth. In a study by the Reader’s Digest Magazine, 90% of Norwegians returned a wallet that they found containing money to it’s proper owner. In Malaysia, the return rate was a mere 50%. Norwegians are also known for the calm, friendliness and social awareness. The country tops the world in adoption rates, has a low crime-rate, and scores highly in all measures of standard of living, government transparency and social awareness. Yet Norway falls on the extreme liberal side of the values spectrum. Now compare this behavior to the recent behavior of JAWI (Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan) officers upon raiding a nightclub. As far as one can tell, the JAWI officers shun western dress and are highly religious, yet their appalling behavior was the epitome of rudeness and incivility. To solve the problem of declining values in this country we first have to understand the nature of human psychology. We must then apply concrete scientific study to the problem and not jump upon every lame theory tossed out by a conservative clerics or simple-minded politicians.|W|P|110708114169489673|W|P|The Roots of Rudeness|W|P|email@vishen.com8/07/2006 12:23:14 AM|W|P|Anonymous|W|P|Malaysian politicians are not idiots, and they are not 'simple minded'. There are limits to things that we have to know. Everything that were exposed to us today are merely the icebergs of what really lies underneath. You are an educated young fellow, you'll be pissing your pants if only you know the true facts about this country; why the Defense Ministry are strengthening the Country's force, buying ships, jets and choppers, and why PM is negotiating deals with singapore and Indonesia about the security of the straits of Malacca etc. There's a frightening facts that some of us can't really handle, thus the infos are filtered to avoid chaos and the distruption of peace in this beloved country.

Due to the facts that Malaysians are rude, i cant see myself arguing about that. its true Malaysians are rude. thats all from me.