Initially I don’t feel the need to justify to anyone, safe for my parents, my choice to stay overseas and look for a job. But of late, especially during the Chinese New Year period, I am becoming quite unpleasantly annoyed at some of my relative’s and friends’ comments about not coming back to my home country.
“Overseas graduates like you are contributing to our brain drain…”
“Why not you come back to work here and contribute to your own economy instead of another country’s?”
“Young people like you should be more grateful and remember your roots, you are still a Malaysian and must always remember that.”
Why imagine hearing these comments time and again over the space of only a few weeks back… I’m certain even the most learned monks would at least be slightly roused up. Well I’ve decided to offload some of my steam here… sorry to those of you reading this that disagree… but I think even those that condemn my decision to stay abroad would most definitely jump at a chance to migrate if granted the opportunity.
And to begin with, I am not uprooting myself and moving to another country for good. All I am planning to do now is search for a job overseas to broaden my horizons. I am certainly very open to the option of coming back to Malaysia in the future, if my country wants me, I want him too.
Economic reasons is certainly one of the key factors in me making my decision, but as with all trilogies, I’ll save that for the last. What I’d like to talk about firstly is the general safety of our beloved country.
Having been around for a while in the neighbourhood that I’m in… my house alone has been the victim of theft a total of 4 times… thankfully all four times nobody was home and only earthly possessions were sorely missed. I however fear to even imagine the ghastly consequence of a family member being home when one of those ruthless thieves striked.
Some people may casually dismiss my unfortunate quadrupled theft to simple bad fortune, but let me assure you that this is very much a petrifying and real threat to all of us. In fact the evidence is staring at us right in the face, I have now totally lost count of the number of housing estates and neighbourhoods around the Klang Valley that have been regrettably tasked to set up and hire their own gated security force, just to sleep soundly at night.
The fact that we the citizens are required to hire our own security force is blatant distrust and lack of confidence of the authorities. And that is how we the people of Malaysia have been ‘trained’ to function, when faced with a problem… like bad social security, instead of taking it up with the people in charge… we sit back, take it up the ass, and fork out our own money to hire extra protection.
It isn’t really tackling the problem at the root, but just finding an alternative ‘temporary’ solution. But I suppose to be fair, there are a group of Malaysians that have worked hard to weed out the evil in the system, but to no avail… it seems that even now, they have only succeeded in proving that nothing can be done.
For its citizens to live a productive life and contribute to the general economic wellbeing of the country, they must firstly feel safe in whatever environment they are in. When our general safety and wellbeing is consistently and frequently challenged, its hard then to live a productive life when you always have to look over your back.
Having to hire and establish our own security and gated community is in my opinion a mild form of vigilante-ism. And vigilantes are usually only required when your city is in the slums and the authorities cannot be counted upon, whether due to a lack of hands or a lack of motivation. Corrupted cities like Gotham requires Batman and Metropolis need Superman. Having to establish our own security system is a little like that… it is a form of vigilantes.
My mom always chides me when I come home late after a late night out, and I understand that she fears for my safety when going out late. What with all the internet and sms circulating around about stories of people getting robbed and harassed at night, her fear for my safety is not unfounded. In fact, sometimes even I feel a little scared when staying out too late, but hey… I do like the occasional night out with my friends…
So I start of a series of posts on my reason of staying abroad with safety… some of you may disagree with what I have to say, but… frankly speaking, this is how I feel. And when the time is right, if I am able to convince my parents to do so, I also hope they may choose to live in a safer environment. And of course, I sincerely hope that the safe environement will be back home here in Malaysia. But a lot of work needs to be done before we can achieve that.
Safety first!
Signing out.
