mind Changing

About a month back, I wrote an entry about the town hall address of the PETRONAS top man, Datuk Shamsul Abbas. He talked about the need for mind set change, stressing that it was something that really needs to happen.

When confronted to change the way you think, the first questions to ask are what kind of mind set changes exactly, and why the need for this change? What’s wrong with the way things are now? These are very fair questions, especially if you’re in a pretty cosy place. In Malaysia, I think that apart from political fiascos that also seem to have infected the globe lately, there’re a lot of people that are pretty comfortable with the way things are.

I’ve seen it through the attitudes of the people that I’ve met every now and then. Honestly, there’s nothing glaringly wrong with these people. If you were a tourist and met them on the street, you’d probably make them out to be friendly, helpful people. Yet, if you got to know them over time, you might wonder why some of them are lacking in progressive thinking and maybe some who are outright lazy, shallow in their evaluations even perhaps. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning anyone, but pointing out a real weakness we have sometimes as human beings.

To me,the mind set change usually has to do with being more progressive and less protective of our personal opinions, to be more receptive to the unfamiliar. The failure to do this happens when we’re right all the time and wrong only when someone points out our mistakes from a text book. We fail when we say the way we do everything is how everyone else should and doing anything different is a crime.

Where I was studying previously, religious tolerance was (and probably still is) an issue simply because certain people cannot accept others doing something differently, and go out of their way to impose themselves. What’s incredible is that they can even go on a witch hunt on people they feel should be a part of them even if its clear they have chosen something different. Even when they don’t, a spirit of condemnation clearly exists. Unfortunately one of the things Malaysians can be good at is silently hating somebody. Not much is said up front, but there’re plenty of stares, whispers and backbiting.

Its really sad when I see people like that, who are close minded, but in their own right could really be good people if they’d just lose the attitude. Its not really about religion though, cases of poor mentality in my country include the multitude of complainers that probably don’t lift much more than a finger to fix their own situations, always blaming circumstances. Accountability is missing, passing the buck and pointing fingers at things beyond their control.

Another situation, most relevant to people leaching on the success of others is being satisfied with the status quo. Subsidies and scholarships were always meant to help people, but the mind set of ‘I deserve it anyway’ make people take their blessings for granted. There’re sponsored students who complain when their pocket money isn’t banked in on time but hardly give thought to the fact their entire education fee is being taken care of. Its not uncommon to hear people of the older generation say there’re many people who want money fast but won’t work hard for it. There’re people that work at big companies but aren’t ‘inspired’ to work well because as long as they get their salary, its good enough for them.

I had the pleasure to meet with two friends recently, both of whom have studied overseas. One thing I’ve noticed about these two, is that they don’t strike you as the kind of people that you would need to change a whole lot about them to get them on their path to success. Simply put, they’re independent people, who aren’t lechers, who aren’t religiously or ethnically intolerant, responsible and open to what people have to say.

I am in no way suggesting that Malaysians who have studied overseas are automatically better than those who didn’t have the chance. What I am saying is, these two people learnt in an environment where they probably opened themselves up to a lot of new things, learning their world was a lot bigger than what they thought or knew it to be and it taught them to be different from several people I know. The biggest mind set problem I believe Malaysians and people the world over face is they only choose to think within the borders of their own little world.

Even with the internet that’s connected the world together, I think too many people still live in their own small world that they forget there’s a much larger one out there, with billions of people doing so many things in so many different ways and that’s reason enough to explore new things and change the way you think or do something if you find something better in the midst of exploring new things. It doesn’t mean I must compromise my moral stands to be open minded, but it does mean I shouldn’t be a judge and jury with extreme prejudice.

A changed mind set is always a more open one. Being able to look at a 360 degree angle is always better than a 10 degree one. You don’t have to take in the whole 360, but you’ve a lot more choice than just the ten.