Malaysia Local Custom Tips by l_joo

National Culture Policy

National Culture of Malaysia is defined in the "1971 National Culture Policy".
The policy of national culture defines 3 principles as guidelines for 'national culture':

1. The National Culture must be based on the indigenous [Malay] culture
2. Suitable elements from the other cultures may be accepted as part of the national culture
3. Islam is an important component in the moulding of the National Culture.

Parking cars anywhere you like

Parking cars anywhere you like is a common local custom & culture.

Sometimes they parked wrongly, inconsiderately and blocked nearly half the road, but listen, you have been warned, please do not say anything, we have Road-bullies, you better don't challenge them, you better keep quiet, live a quiet life, better don't say anything.

You better follow the mainstream, don't try to change anything, it is dangerous.

Master & Slaves Culture

Based on a true story, my ex-manager once explained to me that many Malaysians rather selling Char Kuey Teow than working for local bosses. Many Malaysians rather not working for local bosses, they prefer self-employ Char Kuey Teow (local fast cooking noodles), a kind of street vendor food where the boss/owner is yourself, you can survive selling Char Kuey Teow anywhere in Malaysia as long as the food is delicious.

My ex-manager said, a Char Kuey Teow seller can make RM3000-4000 monthly, a professional writer earn RM3000 monthly.

The good thing is, although Malaysia a law-controlled country, but law is not working due to corruption, bad education & poverty, so it is ok to start your own business anywhere you like. Many peoples setup shanty-restaurants (mostly without approval) at anywhere they like, to make a living. Anyone can do it, it is totally free, including the ministry peoples.

Torture your employees
As a boss, feel free to torture your employees, you pay them salary, you have the right to torture your employees. Hahaha....I know it is not easy for Non-Malaysian to understand. Btw, according to survey, Malaysia was ranked world #5 Over stressed at work.

http://www.gt.com.my/pr20feb2006.htm (Read more here)

**********************************************

Torture employees culture (or Master & Slaves Culture) is a tradition, started from the ancient feudal society.

Boss = Master
Employees = slaves

Many Malaysian especially when they aware they are the boss, they would treat their employees like slaves. This is mainly caused by tradition, not many peoples understand Democracy, also cause by bad education, poverty, etc....and the worst was the poor command of English, which was a big mistake made by the govment.

Anyway welcome, tourists please come to visit us and enjoy our local customs & cultures, please feel free to make plentiful comments.

Mat Rempit - a truly local culture

Mat Rempit is a special unique name invented by Malaysian. A Mat Rempit is a biker who is riding a small motorcyle (low cost US$800-1500) and race illegally on the street, the top speed is approximately 140-160kph which is too fast for a small bike.

Mat Rempit is a super low cost entertainment, according to the "Interview with Mat Rempits", they only spent RM10.00 in fuel/petrol on Saturday night, with just RM10.00, they can play a whole night on the street.

The winner of the illegal race (King of Mat Rempits), usually, get the opportunity to fetch a beautiful girl who are watching the race.

Youngsters, especially those coming from unlucky backgrounds, usually those coming from non-English schools, usually those with poor command of English, they joined Mat Rempits, they unintentionally became Mat Rempits.

English in Malaysia
A person who speaks read write good fluent English = RM4000 or above income monthly
A person who speaks read write bad English = RM1500 or below income monthly

They, no money, they Mat Rempit.

Mat Rempit = Bad Education

Littering habits

Littering habits is cureless in this country. Observe carefully, especially cars driving on the road, usually the car window wind down, someone throws garbage out of the window, watch out, sometimes they throw heavy objects.

I was shocked when I read this signage in a Penang-KL bus, it was placed right in front of me and I was staring at it for nearly 5 hours.

The bus had to remind passengers not to throw garbage out from the bus.

It must be too many passengers threw garbage out of bus windows, no choice, the bus company had to put this signage here, in big.

Report them
Ok, sir, please come to live in Malaysia for 10 years and please try to make reports about throwing garbage, and you see if it works.

I once made a garbage report about my residential area, I thought maybe I should care about the environment, so I made a report to DBKL, no replies at all. Then I saw banners of a political party, I made report to them, they came immediately, many reporters came too, DBKL came too, big peoples came too, took hundreds of photos, the next day the news published on local newspapers, after about a year, the garbage still around, nothing done.

Ancient Chinese beliefs

Roughly 25% of populations in Malaysia are descendant of Chinese, Qingese and Mingese.

They emigrated to Old British-Malaya or the Old Malacca Empire in different period (from 1400s-1900s). Majority immigrants came to Old British-Malaya during the war days from 1800s to 1949. The year 1949 is the year China Communist establish, the border closed, it marked the end of Chinese emigration to British-Malaya.

To visit Malaysia is to visit the traditional community of ancient traditional Chinese, because all the Malaysian-Chinese never experienced the cultural revolutions in China, the Malaysian-Chinese did not know anything that occur in China, therefore Malaysian-Chinese, mostly, still remain conservative, old thinking, still living like an ancient Chinese, interesting ??

Ugly Names - a culture

Malaysian-Chinese has a weird custom, to give 'Ugly Names' to their children, in order to avoid falling into the 'Name list of Hell'.

Interesting eh, wanna know?

Ok, many Malaysian-Chinese came to Malaysia during the industrial revoulutionary days and also the Sino-Japanese war days. Many of them were villagers or labourers without proper educations. When they landed in old Malaysia (1800s-1900s), they feared many things and one of the things they feared most was their lifes and their children's lifes because many died of diseases, etc.

To avoid that, they figured out an idea which is to give 'Ugly Names' to their own children, they believe by doing so, it can avoid the invitation of hell department. They believe there is a hell department and also a King Yen-Lo which is the king of hell department. This King is in charge of the name list of all humans, when Yen-Lo wants you to die, he would call your name, inviting you to his hell department and you will die.

Therefore, in order to avoid getting your children's name to be listed under King Yen-Lo's name list, it is better you give your children 'Ugly Names'.

Example of Ugly Names:
Ah' Pig
Ah' Cat,
Ah' Dog,
Eaow-Sew (short life),
Smelly Fart,
etc.

All these names above are not human names, King Yen-Lo would not recognise and so your children (with Ugly Names) safe. Many parents gave Ugly Names to their own children for this reason.

These children, when they grew up, they adopted exotic names from British, French, etc, for instance:

William Leong (formerly Leong xxx xxx)
Louis Chan (formerly Chan xxx xxx)
Angeline Wong (formerly Wong xxx xxx)
Veronica Chong (formerly Chong xxx xxx)
etc.

* Note:
Some Malaysian-Chinese converted to Christian, they adopted Christianity names.

Some names too difficult to pronounce, such as Lee Siuang Weang, Siow Loong Keong, etc, they changed to Robert, Francis, Andy, Aaron, etc.

Another big influence was Bruce Lee, he was so famous among overseas-Chinese, others follow him, trendy and cool.

Car number plate culture

Car number plate is significant, especially the Malaysian-Cantonese. Some of them are extremely superstitious, they strongly believe a good car number plate would represent one's whole life and fortune.

In a nutshell, "Good number plate = Good luck good fortune to the car owner."

This photo is taken from a car in Malaysia with number plate W?? 168 (I deleted the W?? to avoid unnecessary problems). 168 means One-Six-Eight in English, the meaning does not matter much in English, but 168 in Cantonese is "Yard-Loke-Part", it sounded similar to Yard-Loke-Fart which in its actual meaning is "All the way rich prosper / Prosper the entire life".

Cantonese spent RM10000-RM50000 just to buy/own this car number plate simply for the pronunciation of "Part - Fart".

Please look out for car with number plate 168.

Banana trees

If you see Banana trees inside the garden of someone's house or at the backyard, it tells you this house is 99% not a Malaysian-Chinese own.

Okay let me explain to you, Malay peoples and Indian peoples like to have banana trees but not the Malaysian-Chinese, the reason is banana trees can bring ghosts to them. Hello, this is not a joke sir, Malaysian-Chinese never have banana trees inside their garden because they believe, if you tie a red string on the banana tree with the other end of the string tie to your bed at night, ghosts will come to you.

Banana trees = ghost trees (Malaysian Chinese belief)

Absolutely local custom.

Trying to look like a Merz 2

Now if you look at this national Proton Waja after modified by glueing 2 pieces of triangular-shaped reflexible red backlight to form an illusion or misconception of exotic luxury products of Germany. This kind of illusion cars are not small numbers but a lot.

Superiority
Please bear in mind, in Malaysia, a person who is driving a German made Mercedes-Benz is always superior than aperson who is driving a local made car, although nobody willing to admit, but it was already a common local custom & culture.

A businessman who is driving a Merc is a 'more capable person', most peoples trust them, trust their ability in business. A person who is driving a local made Proton car is, a worker, a social status issue.

Social status
It is all determined on the cost of cars you drive.

Status 1 - Successful businessmen/women drive a German made Merc
Status 2 - Mid income worker drive a Toyota or a Honda
Status 3 - Fresh graduate drive a local made Proton car