YOURSAY ‘Mahathir was probably referring to all the Umno cronies.’
Dr M rues 'lazy' Malays, cites naked Japanese
David Dass: It is not possible for former PM Mahathir Mohamad to generalise in this fashion. It is unfair to the Malays.
In my experience in school, at university and at the workplace - as a teacher and as a legal practitioner - I have found Malays exactly as I have found the non-Malays.
If challenged and pressured, all work hard. Increasingly in the recent past we have found a problem with our standards of education - with thinking, research and writing skills. And with English language proficiency.
If the base degree is not good, the problem can haunt them for the rest of their careers. The truth is that without a high degree of English language proficiency, students will struggle with their university courses as most source materials are in English.
There are a scarcity of good candidates. Many seek employment overseas either immediately on graduation or after a few years of experience. The source of the problem is the system of education.
Chris Wong: I think Dr M is reaping what he sowed. He was probably referring to all the Umno cronies he developed throughout his tenure as PM.
Malaysians are struggling to get by each day. And we face the same challenges. One of the challenges is ignoring old politicians who don't want to go away.
This man now sees the effect of crutches and handouts to the Malays. This was the same result that occurred in other countries that had similar policies. Indeed, the root cause is our system of education and the educators.
The non-Malays focus on education for their children and will pawn everything to give their children the best education. They also save up for emergency contingencies and try not to be in perpetual debt.
I know of a Malay gentleman who recently passed away and who worked extremely hard to build his wealth.
After his demise, all that his children (not one is a degree holder) do is collecting their respective shares of the estate and not one wants to continue building their father’s business empire.
Wiser: Perhaps Malays are spoilt rotten by the system. Anyone who has a ‘rich father’ who provides everything - scholarships, full-board hostels, books, cannot fail in school or university, given a degree, later given a job, no need to work hard but can still be promoted, constantly told they are the best race and they deserve all the country's wealth, and extra privileges given to buy house, cars, and given cash to spend come raya or festivities - where is there a need to work? I wouldn't.
It’s naturally under such circumstances to choose the path of least resistance when making a living. Why start a business? It is simply too hard, the gestation period and all.
Malays are not born lazy. They have fully adapted to the system created by politicians.
Telestai!: Personally, I don't believe the Malays are lazy. By nature, the Malays are trustworthy and capable of being hardworking. The Malay psyche, in my opinion, is the result of decades of partisan politicking.
No thanks to Mahathir, many Malays of today are deeply insecure about their race and religion. With this, Umno can look forward to many more decades in power. So what is this man complaining about?
NewMalaysia: So after years of blaming those non-Malays entrepreneurs for not hiring Malays, I'm glad that Mahathir is made to eat his own medicine.
I have no prejudice against my fellow Malays, but why most of them remain poor and have no shame of being lazy after decades of NEP with all sort of quotas and discounts for them?
All this was due to the irresponsible Malay leaders who poisoned their fellow Malays' mind and eventually sold them out for their own gain. It's disgusting to see that these so-called Malay leaders continue to exploit their fellow Malays for their own political and monetary gain.
The only way those Malays can change their fortune is by treating their fellow non-Malays as friends and not as enemies.
Pemerhati: The Homo sapiens species calls itself by many names such as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, Jews, Arabs, etc. The species behaves similarly to external stimulus.
One of the greatest motivator of the species is greed. One reason why the capitalist system triumphed over the communist system is that the capitalist system with its profit motive used greed to motivate people. The harder one worked, the more one earned.
While under the communist system, where everything was state controlled, the greed factor was absent and so there was no incentive to work hard as one would not get anything more however hard one worked. Under this system, many would be tempted to even delay and shirk their normal duties.
In Malaysia, Mahathir deliberately filled up the public sector (where the system is similar to the communist system of working) with Malays and hence many became lazy. The non-Malays had to go into the private sector where greed comes into play and thus many became hard working.
Mushiro: Malays are also not ashamed of being corrupt. Most of the Malay leaders are so corrupt that they unashamedly flaunt their ill-gotten wealth as if they have earned it through their sweat.
And these Malay leaders greedily focus on making more ill-gotten money for themselves that they fail, and do not care, to develop the poor Malays. These leaders then blame the unsuccessful Malays for being lazy.
Malays failed because they’re exploited by Umno
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