Nurturing National Slackers

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In the industry or even in the universities, there is always much talk about identifying one’s strength or niche area to focus on, being a specialist rather then a generalist, etc.

Well, from what I’ve seen so far, one thing that Malaysia seems to be very good at is nurturing slackers. We don’t have to go through a time travel machine to go back so far in the past to review this.

Just look at the recent joke of decisions and policies that had been made…

About 2 weeks ago, it was announced that there would be a special 50% discount on all traffic summonses for traffic offenders. Much debate ensued about where is the fairness in this ‘merciful’ act, especially to all ‘good’ citizens who promptly settled their summonses earlier. In my opinion, all traffic offenders need to be penalised because the law has been broken. So, the question that begs an answer is not whether a discount has been given or not, or whether being made to queue for hours is irrational… but actually, what is the key message that the GOM is giving out to the public through this discount exercise.

Surely those who fail to pay their summonses after a certain deadline should be penalised more and those who pay promptly should be rewarded with a discount instead?

I also remember a couple of years back when the GOM was seriously pushing for the rakyat to renew their existing identity cards to the new MyKAD. A certain deadline was given and as it loomed nearer, there was still a huge mass of people who have not changed to the MyKAD. The best solution the powers that be came up with: let’s throw in a competition of sorts that would enable all new (ie late) MyKAD holders to be eligible for a lucky draw to win a car! Sorry I can’t remember what type of car (or cars) were given away because I was in shock when the superb decision was carried out.

Surely, if there were a couple of new cars just waiting to be thrown into some contest, the eligible participants should be those who were prompt in getting their MyKADs renewed?

And what about the PTPN fiasco where millions of ringgit were given out to students to pursue their studies. Unfortunately, whilst the gesture was noble and right, apparently the system was not in place to recover the funds that was going out. So in the end, thousands of students who benefited from such loans never bothered or even didn’t know how to pay the money back!

Surely all the students that took the loans could be tracked to their employment or even their bank accounts; or a better mechanism put in place to recover all the monies that disappeared?; or some rewards for loaners who pay back regularly?

What I have personally learnt from episodes such as the ones above include…

1. If I commit an offence, it is OK not to react immediately. There will definitely be a bail out or discount or contest somewhere in the future….

2. The systems in place (if ever there was one) is so weak that I can take advantage if it.

3. No urgency from the GOM to chase me for my offence means no urgency from me as well.

How are we going to cultivate a first class mentality of people when we continue to nurture a nation of slackers through such incidences? Sigh.