Rude Malaysians was the title of this article initially. I felt that it was too rude, hence, I have decided to change it. I have lived in many countries, such as Australia, the United States territories, the United Kingdom as well as Egypt.
I have also visited more than a dozen countries for which I have made observations on the subject matter “Respect for Time”.
I feel that we Malaysians can learn by benchmarking against the behaviour of people in those countries. Of course, they, too, have their ugly characters but let us just learn a few good manners instead of highlighting the negative.
We should, however, look at our negativities and endeavour to address them. Here are my thoughts on the subject “Respect for Time”.
Time is valuable. You cannot turn back time. In Economics, the notion of time means the opportunity lost in making money if not used in an economic-generating manner.
Recently, I wasted hours of my time to travel through traffic jams and sacrificed important meetings just to make sure that I arrived on time for an appointment. Not to mention that that intended meeting had also eaten up my personal time after office hours. What was the outcome?
A disappointing one. I waited and waited. I got irritated after awhile and I sent a WhatsApp message: “Hi there. I have arrived for our meeting. Where are you?”
The answer that I got was: “Oh no, I cannot make it. I have an emergency matter to attend to outside town.” The counterparts that I had while working in those foreign countries would never have left me in the dark. They will call me to apologise.
So, I wasted my time when I could have scheduled important meetings or spend time with my family. I have also wasted the diesel in my vehicle and my driver’s time. I find it incomprehensible that people fail to use tools, such as diaries, to remind them of appointments.
There are tonnes of electronic applications to do just that. Perhaps it is not the lack of technology or the use of such technology?
Perhaps it is simply an act of “non-courteousness” for lack of a better English word. But hang on, there is a word — Rude!
This is something that Malaysians do again and again, unlike the people that I have dealt with in those foreign countries mentioned earlier.
In London, even the train arrives at the station within a margin of one minute. Those Caucasians, they will leave a meeting at exactly the end time allocated so that they do not miss the next appointment. Unresolved matters for a meeting (due to insufficient time) will need to be addressed at a later meeting to be scheduled in due course. We can learn from this behaviour.
I am not denying that we human beings cannot control certain emergencies. But we can be courteous to inform our counterparts that plans have changed. I am frustrated with such irresponsible character (non-courteous).
Of course, I, too, am guilty at times. I have decided to start adopting a courteous attitude when it comes to respecting time, respecting other people’s time as well as my own. And perhaps I should not give face to those who cannot respect my time so that they, too, will learn to respect time.
So, I sent another message to that fellow: “Too bad then. I am not free for another month. Please call my secretary to set an appointment within office hours. This time, it shall not be after hours. Have fun.”
Hopefully, that will teach people a lesson. I may sound arrogant but, hey, I am an accountant — the economic rule “Time value for money” applies without hesitation on my part.
As mentioned earlier, I, too, am guilty. I have the habit of trying to finish a task way beyond working hours. This is my disease — Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Often people will have to wait for me for the next session. I have to remind myself to control this OCD and not make people wait.
Another reason to be late for a meeting is logistics. We Malaysians are doomed with traffic jams, heavy monsoon rains, road accidents and similar sagas that often result in the infamous Malaysian “rubber time”, an expression to describe the stretching of an allocated time beyond acceptable punctuality.
This has to stop.
For a start, I have asked my secretary to always consider travelling time from one meeting to another. For this, my driver is to communicate with my secretary on my diary planning to include logistical time management.
To drive from Damansara (my office) to Serdang (for a business meeting) recently took us one whole freaking hour because of the traffic and the rain when, in fact, normal days would warrant only half an hour. Without a time buffer in the diary, this delay could result in unwanted outcomes. A Japanese client might just take a taxi back to the airport and you could have lost the business deal.
There are many aspects of respecting time that we ought to observe. Malaysians are blessed with a multicultural society comprising many ethnic groups. With these come religious and cultural sensitivities that need to be respected.
For example, calling people during Friday prayers is a big no, no. Asking a staff member to work on a Chinese New Year eve night is a big no, no, as well. Whatever it is, regardless of your religion, you must always understand your counterparts and make their lives easy. Respecting other religions is a separate topic that I can write an article about, but suffice it to just talk about time management for the time being.
We must not forget that we owe the duty to respect the time that our family expects of us. We must plan our day, our week and so forth to ensure that we balance between the time for work, for family, for friends, for our own hobbies as well as for ourselves. Make sure that we have the time to interact with our kids. Talk about their school. Have dinner with the wife. Go visit our parents.
Sometimes, we have to work late. That is fine. Work late but do not make it a habit. We have friends whom we used to hang out with when times were less hectic. Do not let those friendships fade away. Catch up with friends over drinks once in a while.
Many of us abandon our hobbies, such as reading, jamming, and painting, and what have you. Why?
Live your life to the fullest. Do what you want to do. Do those things that you miss doing. Do the things that you have always wanted to do. This realisation was what made me climb Mount Kinabalu to its zenith!
Finally, you ought to give time to yourself, too. Have enough sleep. Do the exercise you need. Eat at the right time. These are all simple but important aspects of respecting time. After going through the thinking process of what respecting time means, I realised that time is a profound element of the universe. We all know that without time, the world could not have existed — well, at least this is what I understand from Stephen Hawking’s The Brief History of Time.
No wonder the English have the saying “Mother Earth and Father Time”. Time is divine. Time is ours but yet, time is not ours. Time is just given to us to live our lives but time is taken away from us when we meet our death. Time is magical. Time is indeed God’s greatest gift to humanity far more valuable than life itself.
Without time, there is no life. For this, we must not forget that, above all, we must respect time for God’s sake. God deserves our attention and for that, we have to allocate time for God. At least one major religion had God revealing his commandment to man over the importance of time, and I quote this below:
“In the name of Time. Indeed man is in loss, except those who have faith and do righteous deeds, and enjoin one another to (follow) the truth, and enjoin one another to patience” — Surah Al-Asr (The Time) of the Holy Quran.
Johan Ishak is the chief executive officer of MyCreative