I was just sitting with a bunch of friends yesterday having teh tarik. We were talking about gadgets to be featured here in MT when suddenly one of them said, “Hey are we ready for all this? Can Malaysians cope with advancement?

Well, come to think of it, Malaysians are far behind in terms of acceptance of new technology; especially Malays. And I am a Malay just in case you are wondering. Why we just simply can’t accept changes or advancements? It’s simply because we are complacent with things the way they are.

We wake up in the morning, doing the same routine thing; shower, morning prayers, drive to work, have breakfast at the nearest Mamak joint (roti canai and teh tarik), do the same tasks at the office, lunch (nasi campur and ikan bakar), work again, teh tarik with colleagues after work and talk either football or when is Pak Lah stepping down or how we will be if Najib runs the country, drive back home, shower, dinner (tomyam or fast food), go back home, watch footie on Astro Supersport and finally falling asleep in front of the telly. These are examples of a Malay bachelor’s lifestyle with an income of RM1,800 a month.

At work, they are so used to using Microsoft Office 2003 that when the management decides to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007, they complain the management did not consult with them first and so on and so forth. Why are they complaining? It’s simply because they are SO USED TO the old interface that when they have to upgrade or change their work style, they simply can’t accept it. To them, it’s just like a punishment as they have to re-learn or do some extra work.

If possible, they want the task to be simplified rather than having more features or extras. Funny ain’t it? I fond it amusing when I remembered an incident where the company I am working at did a presentation to another subsidiary company just the same like ours. There we were in a board room full of “old timers”. People in the industry way before I was born! We were presenting to them on the new outlook and interface on Content Management System (CMS) and we were taken aback when one of them starts to be a pain somewhere in the posterior. He starts to complain on how he has to change his normal routine of inputting contents to be published and how troublesome it can be for him and his team and he drones on and on.

I was flabbergasted and aghast. My boss was speechless. These are the people who can’t embrace changes in life. They are complacent of where they are. They have the mindset of, “I don’t want to look at tomorrow, I want today will always be today.”

It’s sad actually when you see other races in other countries are ahead in terms of technology. For example in China, they are already marketing mobile phones which are worn on wrists! It doubles up as a watch too. It is time for us to look ahead, we must prepare ourselves for advancements and when will the so called Melayu Baru will actually be Baru (new) if we choose to be like a popular Malay proverb, katak bawah tempurung or a toad under a upturned coconut shell simply directly translated.

Let us all move forward towards a better tomorrow and towards Malaysia Tomorrow…gambate!

No related posts.