“The Chinese (in China) are very philosophical. They would always talk to the younger generation about the future, what China could be. They looked at objectives.
We, Malaysians, on the other hand, we don’t have objectives. But that, we cannot blame. China was the only country that developed interests in technological development. When they had the open-door policy, the Chinese who went out of the country came back and brought new technology with them. When we talk about 5G communication, they already have 7G.
They are about 20 years more advanced than everyone else. This happened because they are philosophical themselves. They don’t change their policies but rather, they have a planner in place. A planner to monitor what is being decided in the plan. Even earlier in our country, every time we changed our leader, we changed the system. That’s because we don’t have a planner.
Historically, when the British brought the Chinese people as labourers, they had to do all sorts of job. They Chinese don’t tell you about the hard life. Most of the Chinese who were taken out of China came from the South. They spoke Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien. But after the British left, everything was a mess in Malaya. But back then, we didn’t know how to plan for our country.
One way we can learn this, though, is from one of the hadith. The hadith of ‘belajarlah kamu hingga ke Tanah Cina’ (literally: learn until you reach China, meaning seek knowledge until the ends of the Earth). China put everything on a balance. It’s not easy, but they went on and persevered”.
