Why Is Basic Empathy Still an Afterthought? Reflections on Malaysian Kindness

Why Is Basic Empathy Still an Afterthought? Reflections on Malaysian Kindness #

We plaster “Malaysia Truly Asia” on billboards and drone on about our legendary budi bahasa, but let’s cut the marketing spiel and face the ugly truth: for a nation obsessed with “kindness,” basic human empathy is often our most glaring failure. We perform compassion beautifully for the cameras – elaborate charity events, viral fundraising for sick kids – yet stumble over the simplest, daily acts of seeing another human being.

Walk down any street. Watch the able-bodied scramble for seats on the LRT, blithely ignoring the pregnant woman or the elderly man clinging to a pole. Observe the impatient driver laying on the horn seconds after the light turns green, or worse, blocking an ambulance lane because “just for a minute.” Witness the sheer indifference as someone struggles with heavy bags, drops their groceries, or looks lost. The default setting isn’t “Can I help?” – it’s averted eyes and a silent, crushing “Not my problem.”

This isn’t just bad manners; it’s societal atrophy of the soul. We’ve perfected the art of selective empathy. We’ll weep over a sad dog video shared by a stranger online, but turn to stone when a real, live human being needing a tiny sliver of consideration stands right beside us. We’ll share endless “Be Kind” quotes while simultaneously treating service staff like robots, gossiping viciously about colleagues, and demonizing anyone slightly different. It’s hypocrisy served on a bed of performative social media virtue.

The excuses are pathetic: “Busy lah,” “Tak perasan,” “Someone else will help.” Bull. It’s pure, unadulterated selfishness wrapped in a thin veneer of self-importance. That elderly person struggling to cross the road? An inconvenience to your schedule. That crying child in the restaurant? Background noise to your meal. That colleague having a rough day? An annoyance to your carefully curated office vibe.

This chronic empathy deficit isn’t harmless. It breeds isolation, fuels road rage, normalizes callousness, and creates a society where people literally die alone in public spaces because everyone is too absorbed in their own tiny bubble to notice or care. We’ve become frogs slowly boiling in the tepid water of our own indifference.

So spare us the lectures on “Malaysian hospitality.” True kindness isn’t a grand gesture for the ‘gram; it’s the unseen, unheralded moment of choosing not to be a selfish jerk – of holding a door, offering a seat, yielding right of way, asking “Are you okay?”, or simply waiting your damn turn without hostility. Until we grasp that fundamental, daily practice of seeing and valuing the humanity in the person right next to us, all that talk of “kindness” is just empty noise masking a collective failure of heart. Wake up. Look up. Care. Or stop pretending we’re something we’re clearly not.