Thursday July 12, 2012

Do well to cultivate a ‘be on time’ culture

KUDOS to Dr Pola Singh for highlighting the seemingly intractable malaise ‘Malaysian time culture’ (The Star, July 11). As rightly pointed out, we are either blissfully unaware of the loss in productivity or downright apathetic in regards to others’ rights by habitually keeping others waiting.

It is as if being punctual is an unfashionable thing to do, because if you are early, it means you have nothing more important to attend to. Just a couple of weeks ago our family had the privilege of attending a gala concert at one of our premier education institutions.

We were eagerly anticipating the show as previous years’ experiences had been delightful, and were duly seated by 7.30pm as scheduled.

One hour and twenty minutes later an entourage sauntered in and some perfunctory mumbles about traffic jams were offered.

Not only was the packed hall kept waiting for the whole of this duration, but also the poor student cast, crew, orchestra, staff and numerous other support people like drivers etc felt angry, hungry and tired.

It all boils down to respect for other people’s time and activities as well as respect for oneself in upholding the all-important qualities of good character.

The irony of the incident was that these were the very principles that were being espoused, supposedly inculcated and purportedly practised in nurturing the next generation of thinkers and leaders of tomorrow.

I was very impressed to read in your ‘Expat Views’ column sometime back where this German native had made an appointment weeks ahead with a fellow countryman and both kept to the pact implicitly without a second thought, much to the bemusement of his local spouse.

We Malaysians would do well to embrace this culture of excellence and ‘be on time, every time’!

A TRUE MALAYSIAN
Kajang

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Thursday July 12, 2012

Do well to cultivate a ‘be on time’ culture