All races have their problems...

Actually, in every society, there is advantage and disadvantage. There are just things that this people do better and so on. However lets confine the facts to our youth. For only through better understanding of our youth advantages and weaknesses, Malaysian can therefor prepare themselves for the upcoming challenges in this fast developing world.

As a malay, let me point out some of Malays weaknesses. The first and foremost would be reading. It is not quantity that matters, but the quality of reading materials thats important. However, in both, we malays are really under average compared to other races. Malays just dont like to read. We rather spent our time 'lepaking' in mamak stall or 'cuci mata' in shopping complexes. Because of this, our youth are open to such vices like drugs and 'bohsia' ect.

Even if we read, most tend to read magazines such as Mangga and URTV. Only the front page, and sports seems to be the favourite (besides the artist section) thread in newspapers for the Malays. jarang namapak melayu baca business section or the like.

Because of this, Malays selalu fikir short term and not the long term effects. jarang nampak melayu yg berfikiran analatical. Semua nak short cut sajer. semua nak cepat kaya! Tapi, business basic pun tak tau!! Hmmm...

Chinese. Hmmm. I'm a malay, but i have many chinese friends. The problem about chinese is that chinese youth today are not really creative. Yes, they score in their exams, got better grades. But when it comes to creative thinking, most of them fail. This problems among the chinese youth is not only felt here in Malaysia, but recently even in Singapore. Creative thinking is not just for arts ethusiast. It is needed in many other field. A person with high creativity, normally can override many obstacles and adapt themselves faster to any environment compared to the one who is not. Thats why you see most chinese school is trying very hard to instill this creativity in their youth by having traditional music classes ect. Besides educating them about the importance of knowing their roots, hopefully this youth will develop a more creative perspective on certain matters compared to the 'skima' view.

As far as Indians people goes, the trouble about them is disunity. until all indian sets aside their differences and caste ect, they can never go far. The gap between the wealthy indians and the poor ones is very, very big, compared to other races if put in the same scenario. Again, lack of reading culture among them is one of their biggest problem.

The locals in Sarawak and Sabah, face more or less the same problem like the malays. however, the biggest problem most of them face is the lack of opportunity to further their education even with the quota system. In Sarawak, this problem sometimes can turn into a political issue, seeing that it is not the majority Iban that control the state, but it is the minority Melayu-Melanau.

What is written above, only reflect the problem that is face by the masses or kampung people. Besides such problems, there is also the problem of distrust among such races. This is proven with the last KG. Medan incident.

But for middle class people, or the elites such problem rarely occurs. Take for example people living in Bangsar, Kenny Hill or Damansara. These people have no problem mingling among themselves. And their knowledge about how the world works ect is better. However, there is also something lacking.

Youth who is borned and lives in town normally; especially today with PS2 and internet ect; have no knowledge about their culture and the problems that is face by the majority of their people. our knowledge about religion is also quite in a sad state. Most of us were educated abroad and as far as our political scene goes, most of the new leaders are coming from this elite backgrounds. How the hell do you think these people can make good leaders when they have never mingle with the masses?! The masses politics are confine to food, education and money. Sometimes it is quite funny for me to see an MP going into kampungs and talking about IT and computers ect when the people are having shortage of income, because their local produced were destroyed in floods. Hmmm...

Whatever it is, as Ungku Aziz said few weeks back, it is all about culture. We have to promote reading culture among our youth. There must be more open discussion between students and lecturers to create more analatycal mind and creative thinking. University should concentrate more on their R&D to create a Malaysian style of education, and not just teaching knowledge that is cut and paste from other countries. There should be more practical rather than theory. The education ministry, have to update themselves and create other education opportunities and not just concentrate on Law, Accounting, Medicine, Engineering and IT. What about Music, Aerospace Technology, BioEngineering and Archeology?

In short, our youth, not just the malays but all youth are really really bored. Hence, there is a lot of social problems lately. Why? Because their choices for working is limited. If i want to be a cartoonist, where do i go locally? Hmmm? Hence most of us just 'lepak'. We stall. We take our time because we know we'll end up doing work just for the MONEY!! Ask around you in the office and see whether they work because they love their work or because of the pay. And when we have people working just for the money, cincai laa semua. I potong you, you potong i, biasa laaa. Business maaa.

But yes, malays do have the biggest problem. Last week i went to Kerinchi, and it is still the same. Dirty as ever. You go to a malay workshop, you'll see the tools scatered here and there. And i feel ashamed because my religion preach cleanliness as a priority! it seems most malays workshop havent quite learn about cleanliness from the sitcom 'Spanar Jaya'.

If i go to a chinese workshop, at least it looks tidy. Kalau dia nak tipu pun at least dia akan cakap,
"Aiyaa boss. Manyak soli aaa. Ini semua kena tukar laaa. Kalau tak tukar nanti enjin semua kena overhaul loo."
bluesy: "Haiyaa!! banyak mahal laaa! Gua mana ada duit! Takkan ini rosak sikit semua kena ganti!"
"Aiyooo. kalau tak ganti aaa, nanti lagi susah woo. Boleh repair, tapi dia nanti rosak balik ooo. Nanti lu jugak susah, mau tolak ini keleta..."

Kita nak marah pun tak jadi. We know dia tipu tapi, cara dia cakap tuh, kena tipu pun takperlaa. Kalau Melayu? Haaa, dia jadi camnih,

bluesy: Eh! Ni aku hantar dari pagi tadi kau tak check lagi ker? Bila nak check nih?
"OH! Dah check dah ni. Ni kena ganti nih. Tapi, kena hantar tempat lain la bang. Kena bayar deposit la sikit."
bluesy: Belum apa2 dah kena bayar deposit ker? Kau repair ler dulu, kereta nih aku biar kat sini.
"Tak boleh ler bang. Saya cari makan bang. Kena la bayar bang"
bluesy: Dah kau tak repair apa lagi, nak bayar apa? kau tak explain lagi rosak tang mana. Explain la dulu..
"camnilah bang. Saya ader banyak kereta kat sana tuh nak repair. Kalau abang tak nak bayar, abang tolak la kereta ni."

Hmmm. Inilah melayu, duit dulu baru kerja jalan. Hmmm....