Hypocrites, thats what we are

Let us for once be frank with ourselves. How many of us can sincerely say that he or she has never broken the law or any rules or regulations. None, I suppose.

I’ll give you a classic example – rubbish. We have bins placed by the local authorities at strategic places to enable citizens to throw their rubbish but do they use these facilities? They don’t. When I say “they”, I mean the typical Malaysian, which, invariably, includes me.

Frankly, I have sat at bus-stands smoking and as the bus approach, I just throw my cigarette butt on the floor even when there is a bin placed about 2 feet away.

Another classic example, will the Raub Court premises. There are sufficient stickers displaying the “No smoking” sign yet, every Tom, Dick and Harry is puffing away. To add insult to injury, the puffing is done with the signage starring at the smokers. Guess what? Those smoking in the court premises are mostly court staff, prosecutors and lawyers – the same people who are supposed to uphold the law. You guessed right – most of the time the signage stares at me.

What about domestic rubbish and waste? We are asked to place bins outside our premises and ensure the rubbish is properly tied in rubbish bags and placed inside these bins. What do we do? We tie the rubbish in rubbish bags and place them outside the bin. We even throw rubbish at the foot of signage that reads “Jangan buang sampah disini – denda RM500.00”.

What surprises me is that, these same people, who break laws in this country, behave very well in other countries. For example, when I was in Madinah, smoking outside the gates of the Prophet’s Mosque, some Arabs shouted – “haram, haram” at me. I immediately threw my cigarette away and from that moment, refused to smoke other than inside my hotel room.

In Singapore, I have seen Malaysian not smoking when they are walking the streets. I suppose they fear that they may litter the streets with their cigarette ash. Likewise in Japan, no Malaysian will smoke other than at designated booths. No Malaysian will throw cigarette butts or tissues out of moving cars in Singapore or Japan like they habitually do in Malaysia. All rubbish is thrown into rubbish bins.

Some blame enforcement. They say that the enforcement officers are not carrying out their duties diligently. They do not reprimand or summon when they see someone breaking the law and/or rule. Do we really need enforcement officers breathing down our necks all the time? Do we need to be reminded as to what is right and what is wrong when we can intelligently make the distinction in other countries?

At the end of the day, we can ask ourselves one question, stringent enforcement or not, what is our problem? Are we habitual law breakers? My short answer will be - No!!! We are not. If we are, obviously we will also break the laws of other countries but we religiously do not.

Do we therefore, consider ourselves hypocrites? Breaking laws in our own country and instantly becoming law abiding citizens in another country. To a certain extent, we are – like it or not – whatever our excuse.