I REFER to Andrew Drummond Law’s column, “Tourism under threat” (NST Life & Times, Sept 10). I agree with the writer when he wrote: “Smile, like it or not, you are a national ambassador.”
Sabah is known as “The Land Below the Wind” because of its location that lies below the typhoon belt.
Sarawak is known as, “The Land of the Hornbills”, the national bird of the state. Egypt is “The land of the pharaohs” because the most powerful person in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh.
Even so, there is nothing more pleasant and beautiful than Thailand, which is known throughout the world as “The Land of Smiles”, because Thais smile even though they face political problems.
They welcome tourists with a smile that shows friendliness. This makes tourist and people feel at ease and relaxed.
Prophet Muhammad said: “Even a smile is charity.”
Mother Teresa said: “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
And a Chinese proverb goes: “Every smile makes you a day younger.”
Books, songs, articles, poems, and quotations have been written about the smile.
Some people take the smile for granted, when it can “break the ice”. This is an idiom that means to make people who have not met before feel more relaxed with each other.
That’s what Thais are doing, and I feel that Malay-sians should emulate Thais and smile more often at Malaysians and tourists.
A smile is free, and one will be rewarded for it.
I have observed that Malaysians have tight lips, simply because they are unwilling to let their lips open up for a smile, to show friendliness to someone irrespective of race, colour or religion.
Enter a lift full of people, and you see that “kiasu”, “egoistic” and “sombong” (arrogant) look on their faces, even though one enters the lift with a greeting and a smile. No one will respond.
Why not just give a “senyum kambing”, as Malays say — even a goat smiles, sweetly, without opening its lips.
A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles at the side of the mouth.
We should keep our face smiling, and smile when we meet someone.
It helps to generate more positive emotions within us, like love, affection, politeness, kindness, goodwill, mutual respect and friendliness.
That’s why we often feel happier around children, as they smile more. Smiling is more than a contraction of muscles in our face.
“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do,” said Mother Teresa.
I would like to urge the Tourism and Culture Ministry and the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to start a smiling campaign, and put up posters of people smiling, in trains, buses, taxis, lifts, shopping complexes and government departments.
Hopefully, more Malaysians will start smiling at each other and become friendlier.
I feel that the greatest thing we’ll ever learn is just to smile and be smiled at.
n NOR SHAHID MOHD NOR, Petaling Jaya, Selangor