Sunday, August 14, 2005

We humans have this urge of being better than everyone else, which is a good thing, Ungku Aziz, in today’s newspaper mention that “orang melayu tidak ada sifat kiasu seperti orang cina, dan dengan sifat kiasu itu yang menyebabkan orang cina lebih maju dalam bidang economi dari orang melayu. Orang melayu harus ada sifat kiasu itu.” I couldn’t agree more with him, memang benar, when it comes to bringing ourselves one step closer to be better in economics or becoming better person, we are not as kiasu as we should be, but when it comes to developing the “holier-than-thou” attitude, we are the kiasuest of all kiasus…

Kiasu: when will we channel our kiasu-ism to the right place?

Members of our society have this thing about my “holier-than-thou” attitude, we loath it, but at the same time, we love it. It’s almost to be seen as a part of what makes us human, we judge people for fun, we mock other people to make it seem that they are worst than us, we laugh of other people misery to show that we are stronger, we reject other people just because their ideology would threat our believe system. Worst of all, we didn’t take a second or two to think, that perhaps, the position you are standing right now doesn’t bring you anywhere near to become a better person, just let you stay where ever you are for the rest of your life. When every one else is becoming more mature and wise, you are still the same old stupid (sorry) you.

Our urge of being holier than everyone else is costing us a lot, whether we realise it or not, this attitude of ours is turning us into a bunch of bumps, that’s why orang melayu tak maju (bukan semua), even after 30 years of implementing dasar DEB. Don’t put the lame on the name “melayu”, I heard of before some people bitch about the name “melayu”, they say, macam mana orang kita nak maju, letak nama melayu, last-last, me-layu lah kita semua.” Wake up and smell the coffee!!!! A rose will still smell nice even if you put "ass-hole" as the name!!! (I'm trying to make a point here..ok?) nama tidak menjustificasikan apa-apa, the attitude will. Manusia…manusia, we oft put the blame on others, if we can’t put it on human, we will put it on the name; that is how lame we can be.

We tend to put blame because we have that “holier-than-thou” attitude, we can’t accept any flaws, even if it is solely ours. Wiseman Za’ba mentioned that “perangai bergantung pada diri sendiri.” And that we have to look at our self, our attribute towards ourselves, our community, and Allah, before we can judge others. We bitch about too much of too many things, and by the end of the day we do nothing about it, to one extend, we’ve developed a pleasurable experience just by doing so. Kalau betul orang melayu terus me-layu, takkan ada orang seperti Ungku Aziz, Za’ba, dan lain-lain. Yang bezanya, attitude mereka towards life.

I know this one person, whom he and his wife are very close to Ungku Aziz (as he claim), he said to me one day, “kita orang melayu terlalu banyak merasa, bila dalam perucapan kita, kita menyebut, saya rasa…kita sepatutnya ikut cara orang putih, kalau mereka berucap, mereka mulakan dengan saya fikir (I think)…” and he tried to make me believe that he himself uses the “saya fikir” instead of “saya rasa”. Ok I did learn something new that day, that is yes, mungkin betul cakap dia, yang kita terlalu banyak merasa, tetapi tindak tanduk dia, tidak menunjukkan seperti orang yang berfikir. Kerana orang yang “berfikir” fitrahnya akan lebih mesra, lebih down-to-earth, and lebih decent, tetapi tidak padanya, dia lebih tinggi sifat bongkaknya, dan lebih menebal “holier-than-thou” attitude, mungkin sebab dia “fikir” that he is better than everyone else.

Our “holier-than-thou” attitude menyebabkan kita punya rasa kurang sedar diri, dan lebih bongkak. Manusia tidak punyai hak untuk membongkak, kerana by the end of the day, there is no different between you and me, we are the same, and we are still the pawn. Setiap gerak kita digerakkan oleh tangan yang tidak kelihatan, terlalu agung untuk disifatkan. Before we judge others, remember that we are not as perfect as we think, so judge yourself 1st. and when your through judging your own self, you’ll realise that you are no better than anyone else, ergo, you have no right to judge other, and hopefully you’ll manage to learn to channel your “kiasu” energy to other sector, and perhaps one of it would be on how to improve our self better. Insyaallah…

Enough said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i hate kiasu when it comes to materials. you know...hehehe