Sunday, 18 January 2009
Malay Thinking
The Malay mindset is said to be filled with negative factors which resulted in negative thinking and consequently negative actions leading to negative results. This is the malady of the Malay mind and the virus responsible for decapitating our thought. Some of the major negative values dominating the Malay mindset are: (1) lack of self-confidence; (2) lack of survival instinct; (3) uncontrollable jealousy against the success of other Malays; (4) subsidy mentality; (5) fatalistic thinking; and (6) lack of thirst for acquiring knowledge
To have economic freedom, the Malays must be creative and innovative which is the new source of wealth, strength and future survival for our community. To be creative and innovative the Malays must have zeal and appetite to acquire knowledge with an open mind. This in line with the sayings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w): ‘Muslims should seek knowledge even as far as China.’ As Muslims the pursuit of knowledge must be made the central theme of every Malay upbringing. This was clearly stated in the Sayings of the Prophet (s.a.w): “Those of you, who want the (materialistic) world, he must have knowledge; those of you, who want the hereafter, must have knowledge; those of you, who want both, must have knowledge” (as narrated by Muslim).
The Islamic foundation based on taqwa and tauhid towards Almighty Allah and iman should be the starting point of the Malay mental revolution. Since change, even for the better, will bring chaos and instability we have to be grounded to something very solid, that is the noble values of Islam so that we do not go astray. To change our mindset and thought we have to change the negative contents of our subconscious mind by replacing them with the desired values.
Culture and Values
Culture and values are the key determinants towards the strength, success and survival of any race, community or nation. The country may be rich in natural resources, but the people remain poor and underdeveloped due to culture and values which may inhibit creativity and innovations. Western cultures are more advanced economically and financially, and also in science and technology because their values encourage creativity and innovativeness. Though you may argue of many negative traits of western cultures, particularly in term of poor moral values and too much freedom, we have to admit that their societies are more advanced in all sectors – economic, finance, education, science and technology, medicine and health, social security and assistance to the poor, engineering, politics, weapons and defence, sports, telecommunications, transportation, space exploration and technology, nuclear science, environment, social sciences, industrial machines and plants, etc. They dominate in almost all fields and everybody else becomes dependant on them.
A Mysterious and Unique Race
The Malays are sometimes referred to as a unique and a mysterious race. Unique Malay traits such amok (homicidal mania) and latah (a kind of temporary nervous affliction) seldom inflict other races. A person who runs amok will be in a state of totally out of control and do much damage including killing innocent people who are in his way, including his own father, mother and other members of the family. Prior to the act he must have kept his feelings of unhappiness and anger against certain people or certain events which he has felt helpless to resolve for a number of days like a volcano waiting to erupt. In the mean time he will unsuspectingly spend his time preparing and sharpening his machete or other weapons for the kill.
A person who is afflicted with latah, normally a female, will temporarily lose self-control and will follow the command of others as if she is in a trance. The state of latah is triggered by some sudden unplanned events or by certain rapid and sustained actions or tickling by other people to induce her to the state of latah. Sometimes political leaders also suffered from this infliction, particularly Malay leaders when making public statement or decisions on critical issues damaging to the Malay community without proper study and evaluation just because they come under pressure from non-Malay leaders.
Malays even do their counting from the tail instead from the head as practiced by other peoples. For example to count cattle the Malays would say ‘ten tails of cows’ instead of ‘ten heads of cows.’
The Malay Values
Our culture and values are characterised as feudalistic, aristocratic, exceedingly courteous and self-respecting culture of honour and display rather extreme shyness in dealing with others. The Malay culture also emphasises moderation, tolerance, harmony and cordial relations among family members, neighbours and the community. Being Muslims the Malays also subscribed to Islamic values of honesty, sincerity, truth, trust and trustworthiness, integrity, just, independence, quality, equality, humility, diligence, patience, gratefulness, charity, courage, teamwork, self-discipline, self-actualisation, initiative, service, forgiveness and compassion. We also believe in Allah’s Will or fate. These values do not differ much from the universal values adopted by the west as Western values; namely hospitality, resilience, trust, civility, tolerance, respect, forgiveness, courage, love, kindness, diligence, patience, compassion, endurance, faith, liberty, economic freedom, open mind, creativity, innovation, religious right, individualism, integrity, just, justice, privacy, respect, responsibility, self-actualisation, self-discipline, service, initiative and teamwork.
With the exception of feudalistic and aristocratic, which are the basis of the caste system inherited from the Hindus and not suitable with modern societies, the other values are all universal values and in line with the teachings of Islam. Feudalistic and aristocratic denotes that the Malay community is divided into the upper class that is wealthy and owns land and property ruling over the poor uneducated working class. Another example of feudalistic value is being practiced in UMNO, where members are discouraged to air out dissenting or different views which contradict the position and views of the leadership. Those who are braved enough to criticise the leadership, even for the good of organisation are never tolerated and risk disciplinary action. We may have to add a few values which are not so explicit in our modern Malay community, such as creativity, innovation, economic freedom and open mind as long they are not to the extent of compromising our moral and religious values and Islamic teachings. Islam teaches us to be independent and free from the clutches of other human or other beings except Allah. As such it is imperative that we Malays must inculcate these values if we want to excel in all fields and sectors to be in line with Allah’s revelation in the Holy Koran that human beings are Allah best creation but to be Muslims are the best of all. To be the best of all the Malays must be independent and to ensure and protect our independence from encroachment by others and reduce us to weakling dependents, to be ridiculed and insulted by others at will, including by our own leaders as is happening now, we must achieve economic freedom. To have economic freedom, the Malays must be creative and innovative which is the new source of wealth, strength and future survival for our community. To be creative and innovative the Malays must have zeal and appetite to acquire knowledge with an open mind. This in line with the sayings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w): ‘Muslims should seek knowledge even as far as China.’
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