The Wilful Sunflower

Since I'm Malaysian (and live in Malaysia), this commentary by Jeffrey Collins at Joyful Christian drew my attention.

Our leaders have always seemed to be a wee bit suspicious of "the West". Perhaps that stems from memories of being a British colony.

I see "the West" getting blamed for many things: erosion of moral values, deterioration of family ties, materialism, rebelliousness among the youth. It's said that "Western values" have seeped into our culture, eclipsing our so-called "Asian values". We tend to take pride in our courtesy, modesty and respect of elder folks, you see.

Even if the charge is true, with globalisation, I don't really see how it's possible to stop this happening. I mean, we grow up on Hollywood movies, we dress in "Western" dress, we eat "Western" fast food: McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King. The Malay traditional dress, called a baju kurung for ladies and baju melayu for men, is totally unlike the Western ladies' dresses and mens' typical three-piece suits.

Baju kurung	Baju melayu

While it's rare to see men walking around in baju Melayu, you'll still see a lot of women wearing the baju kurung, because Islam places a strong emphasis on modesty. (And it's our national religion, so the majority of the country is Muslim.) Indeed, a Christian guy once told me, "I have no problems when I'm around Muslim girls in their baju kurungs. But sometimes, when I'm around Christian women, I have to consciously rein in my thoughts!" Makes you think about the way we Christian girls choose to dress, eh?

The thing is, I've always wondered how the leaders can chide us for ascribing to "Western values", when they themselves dress in three-piece suits to meet foreign dignitaries and go on state visits. I mean, if you want to preserve our culture, shouldn't you be setting an example? But no, "in Rome, do as the Romans do" seems to be the watchword – we don't want to emphasise our differences so much at that level. Why? Because we want the foreign countries – "the West" – to take us seriously and to treat us as an equal. We are desperately trying to get out from the "Third World country" label.

So if our leaders court recognition from "the West", and dress as "Westerners" do, speaking a "Western" language (English!) and emphasising the importance of that "Western" language in schools, how do you expect to keep "Western" culture from seeping into our society?! Duh...

The Petronas Twin Towers

Besides, we blame "the West" for almost every negative influence and trend, yet we have much to thank them for. If not for the technology from "The West", I don't think we'd have been able to build the world's tallest buildings (for now!), the Petronas Twin Towers. If not for our Western trading partners and investors, our economy would not have grown as fast and as much as it has. I could go on and on.

On an unrelated note: Obese kids sue McDonald's. One of the plaintiffs, a 15-year-old kid by the surname of Rhymes, weighs more than 180 kilograms (400 pounds). "In papers filed before Judge Sweet, Rhymes's mother said she had 'always believed McDonald's was healthy for my son'". Good grief. My immediate reaction is, "What kind of mother is she?!" Never mind that we shouldn't judge people and all that. But which mother doesn't know that a McDonald's meal isn't a balanced meal, and which mother allows her child to eat enough McDonald's for him to get to weigh more than 180kgs?!!