Learn ethics from the Japanese

I refer to the letter, Learn ethics from the Japanese by Hasan Talib, and I was particularly struck by his saying that "we should learn to be grateful to the British who gave us a very good system of government, education, parliamentary democracy and above all, the English language. ..".  The Japanese, though they have had  their 'bad days' during the Second World War, are willing to accept learning and knowledge from those who defeated them and as the writer mentioned, are even grateful for Western help in rebuilding their devastated nation.

Likewise, I observe that the Koreans, even though they have been 'colonized' by China for hundreds of years, still proudly use the Chinese language besides the Korean language (Hangui script), invented by King Sejong to overcome the difficulty of learning the Chinese script in the 15th century.

The underlying reasons why the Japanese and the Koreans do so, is that they do not have the 'inherent insecurity' and distrust of anything foreign, and they are confident that they will not be 'less Korean or Japanese' even if they accept foreign influence and languages into their mainstream culture. They also do not harbour any inferiority complex, and they do not choose to hide behind false nationalistic values to cover their ineptitude.

It is this confidence and trust in ourselves that all Malaysians must inculcate, and we should ask ourselves, "Are we any less Malay/Chinese/Indian/Malaysian if we speak excellent English or French? Are we less loyal to our nation, if we wear the ubiquitous coat and tie to the office and to the Parliament?"

Self denial to cover up our inadequacies is surely the way to mediocrity. Have we all not learned in school the saying, "Katak di bawah tempurung?"