Someone tried to mug my DS (again) with a parang. But failed.

Sure, I agree, it's the same all over the world as how it is in Malaysia, but what is different with what I observed in other places compared to Malaysia is the willingness to speak up against the injustice, rather than skulking in the corner even though deep down it is wrong to just let the injustice happen. LRT, a "conveniently" sleeping ignorant taking up seats for the elderly for example. Or people cutting queues at supermarkets or taxi lines. The thing is, Malaysians tend to "let things slide" more likely than "everywhere else around the world" because Malaysians have been brought up with this thing called "save face" or "jaga air muka", unlike the more forward-minded folks "everywhere else around the world". To compound the issue further, to the typical Malaysian, as long as it does not encroach into his rewards, or does not trouble him so, he or she does not feel bothered or compelled to act, because of the "tidak apa" attitude and "save face" thing again. It is built into the very fibre of the Malaysian to not speak up or "making ripple on a calm pond" of a situation, so to speak, and because of that, the perp knows that he can get away with it.

Why I am adamant of this? Because I have seen this happening time and time again, and it had not changed before in the 1980s, and it has not even changed now. People still rubberneck when accidents happens infront of them then, and it is still the same now. There were never seats offered to the elderly or the pregnant during the days of Bas Mini Wilayah(BMW) days(and those who are old enough to remember these terror on the street, knows how critical it is for these "orang kurang upaya" to be seated instead of swaying around standing!) and guess what? Replace that Bas Mini Wilayah with the current RapidKL, it is still the same attitude. People still rush like animals for the seats, and so forth. The only difference here is we've moved away from the cramp confines of a BMW to the more spacious RapidKL bus, but the attitude and behaviour of these patrons of the bus does not "modernize" with the modernization of these buses. Still raucous and selfish as before. The same *******-like behaviour you see on the road 20 years ago, is happening again now, the only difference is the car has changed from the ol' Datsun 130Y to the Prius, but the drivers inside these vehicles are as an ******* as they were 20 years ago, when they are now.

I've said this before about how I loathed the mainland Chinese in China for their barbarian-like behaviour while living in a sprawling metropolis city-like setting in Shanghai and Beijing, and I've observed this as being due to the overly rapid growth of development around them that they are "forced" to leap forward and live in these city-like settings, but aren't given enough time or exposure on how city-living is, or the etiquette of city-living is. Hence you see the barbaric- and kampung-like mentality there, but under a city-like setting. The same thing, although at a relatively smaller degree, is happening in KL. We live in KL for 20,30 odd years but the city has changed, more amenities, more modern facilities, but the attitude and behaviour, the city-living etiquette did not come together with these modernization. People still dont flush while using public toilets, rubbernecking in accidents, selfishness in giving up seats in public transports, line-cutting in post office or supermarkets. These things are happening because Malaysians TOLERATE it, and let it happened, and not have the moral and civic duty and obligation to speak up against it, and the injustice happening before their eyes, because to "save face" and the reluctants to speak up. The most I see people do is look at each other and hoping that someone else besides them will say something, and most of the time, everyone kept quiet. Try this in Australia for example, see the tongue lashing you'll get if you do those things.

that person does not feel a part of a society, a community or the people of the nation he was borned under, and wanted to be with the people he/she felt he most belonged to. For this second reason, most if not all the time, it is because that person is well-travelled, has been exposed to the way of life outside of his own country, and in turn feel compelled to change for the betterment of himself, but either unable to do so back at his home country, or shunned from doing so by the people of his own country, for either being too unorthodox to the way of life in his home country or because of the FEAR OF CHANGE by his own countrymen, that refuses to either listen or try to understand what he/she is trying to do/achieve. This particular person would probably feel so out of place to be in his current country of residence, and does not enjoy living in that kind of life, feel stifled by the restrictions and society's expectations of what he/she should be and not what he/she could be. Bonus to this also the same as per the first reason, he gets a better future for himself, and probably feel much better with living among people who make him/her feel like he/she belong with them. "No man is an island" is a saying most appropriate here, and mankind always feel the need to connect with one another, but to do when you dont feel like you belong, or like you connect with the people around you in your present country, UNLESS you conform and follow the society's expectations towards you? In other word, CONFORM or be shunned with. TOLERANCE is a thin veil in this country, we try to kid ourselves into thinking that "wow, look at us, many races many religions can live together, we are teh awesummm!", but the real deal is, there is great mistrust, prejudice and racial/religious bias among us. Compound that further with more communal expectations set by your own race/religions/set of peers like "must get married by xx age and have x kids by xx age", "must not drink beer or we rotan you if you of a certain religion", "must follow moldy racial/traditional rituals or you're shunned as being non-conformal", and that alone impose a subconscious burden on a person who just want to live as how he believe he should.