RUDE MALAYSIANS was the title of this article initially. I felt that it was too rude, hence I had decided to change it. I have lived in many countries such as Australia, the United States of America territories, the United Kingdom as well as Egypt. I have also visited over a dozen other countries for which I have made conscious observations on the subject matter 'Respect for Time'. I sincerely feel that we Malaysians can learn by benchmarking to the behaviours of the people of those countries. Of course, they too have their ugly characters but let us just learn a few good manners instead of highlighting their negativities. 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 itself means the opportunity lost of making money, if not used in an economic generating manner. Recently I have wasted hours of my time to travelling through traffic jams and sacrificed other important meetings just to make sure that I arrive on time to 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. 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 would call me to apologise.
So I wasted my time when I could have scheduled other important meetings or spend time with my family. I have also wasted the diesel in my vehicle and I have also wasted 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 nowadays 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 the station within a margin of 1 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 particular 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 human beings can be courteous to inform our counterparts that plans have changed. I am frustrated with such irresponsible character (non-courteousness). 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 time. 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 some 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 particular task that I am doing even though I have passed way beyond the allocated timeline. 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 logistic. We Malaysians are doomed with traffic jams, heavy monsoon rains, road accidents and similar sagas which often result in the infamous Malaysian 'Rubber Time', an expression to describe the stretching of an allocated time beyond the 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 effectively with my secretary on my diary planning to include logistical time management. To drive from Damansara (my office) to Serdang (for a business meeting) yesterday took us one whole freaking hour because of the traffic and the rain when in fact, normal days would only warrant half an hour. Without a time buffer in the diary, this delay can result in many unwanted outcome. 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 time respecting that we ought to observe. Malaysian are blessed with multicultural and ethnic groups. With that comes various religious habits that need respect over its sensitivities. For example, calling people during Friday prayers is a big no, no. Asking a staff 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 religion is a whole separate topic that I can write an article about but suffice 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 that friendship fade away. Catch up with friends over drinks once in a while.
Many of us abandon our hobbies such as reading, jamming, 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 has 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.
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