Got head but no tail
Sunday Star 13/3/2005
Your Sincerely
By Mangai Balasegaram
A FRIEND was complaining about a pole in Putrajaya recently. “It’s my pet
peeve,” he said, in an exasperated tone.
A pole? Normally, he’s not the kind of person to give two hoots about
poles of any kind.
This was a special pole though. Launched by the former prime minister with
much fanfare, the obelisk-shaped National Millennium Monument was supposed
to become a historical landmark. Today it has been blocked off because of
“renovation works”.
“Why can’t we finish anything?” my friend complained. “You know, the
Chinese have a saying for this – got head but no tail.”
That’s us Malaysians. Great start, but no staying power. We can have all
the Malaysia-boleh necessary to initiate projects but what’s the point if
we falter after a few steps?
Lately, we've been seeing this “got-head-no-tail” syndrome quite often.
Take the Paya Indah Wetlands Sanctuary. Three years ago, it opened with
much razzmatazz and promises that it would be a leading tourist
attraction. The Botswana government even gave four Nile hippopotamuses as
a gift to the eco-park. Today, after the Government has pumped in tens of
millions of ringgit, it’s closed to the public.
Now I don’t want to delve into the why's and how's behind this example,
(perhaps only the financial records can tell the true story), but can
someone please explain why this phenomenon is all too common?
How many projects were started with the promise of so much but ended up
going down the toilet? We have apartment blocks that plummeted in value
because the developers couldn’t keep up the maintenance; the tourist
attractions that no longer “attract” because they are filthy; the grand
projects that became embarrassing national grand failures ? and so on.
Even national treasures are left to deteriorate; old relics literally
turned to dust. In Taiping, the local government was recently accused of
having a “couldn’t-care-less attitude” about the town’s grand old trees,
some of which were more than a century old. Rather than taking the trouble
to do pruning, trees were felled to make way for shop lots and schools.
Why is sustainability – and by that, I mean maintenance, management,
upkeep, preservation – so problematic here? Are we just too cheap? Or are
we simply too slipshod and lazy? Why are we so chin chai about standards?
Well, by having it cheap ‘n' easy, we end up with worn and nasty.
We are a lot about show and little about substance. It amuses me to see
swanky new developments with drains that are blocked and stinking. Nice
exterior, but shabby interior. To me, this is like sweeping your house and
leaving the dirt in a corner because you’re too lazy to throw it out.
In the same vein, there are lots of restaurants with lots of show but
little substance. Fancy design, but tasteless food, unclean environment,
horrendous service (sometimes waiters don’t barely knows the menu or even
the lingo), and to top it all, ridiculous prices! No value for money.
In some places, there isn’t even much show. The filthy is upfront. No
secret that the “pearl of the Orient”, Penang, is looking rather grotty
these days. Or that trendy Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur is full of rats.
Actually, poor services and maintenance have been cited by foreigners
(investors and tourists) as a key weakness of Malaysia. I used to think we
weren’t that bad compared to some of our neighbouring nations, but lately,
I’ve had my doubts.
Last week, for the third year running, my mother’s birthday cards from
Britain and the United States failed to turn up, despite the fact that
they were sent well in advance. Last year, one card took three weeks to
get here. Yet there was a time when letters from London got here in five
days.
I ran across this quote from two tourists on the Internet: “(In Peninsular
Malaysia), we found the sights ? not well maintained. The cities were
filthy – a kind of filth we never saw in Thailand. Sanitation is often
very poor?”
“Budget accommodation was a huge step down from what we got in Thailand?
the budget hotels were below our minimum standard (clean room, private,
quiet, safe).”
Why, they asked, did they ever leave Thailand? Eventually, more tourists
will ask that same question.
Can we stop trying to prove ourselves with grand projects and new records?
How about getting our basics right – which includes efficient services –
and maintaining what we have? We can create the biggest roti canai or the
tallest pole, but what good is that if we can’t even prune trees or clean
toilets?
Mangai Balasegaram is a journalist who stubbornly remains an optimist,
despite more than a decade of working on bad news. She still believes it
is possible to change the world, if only by changing the perspective a
little bit. Send your feedback to starmag@thestar.com.my |
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