KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysians lack trustworthiness and a sense of shame, as seen from how some have failed to repay their tertiary education loans, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Speaking to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia staff and students at a special lecture on Thursday (Sept 20), the prime minister said youth would do well in life and help the country’s development if they adopted the Japanese sense of trustworthiness and of honour and shame.
He said he felt shame on behalf of National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) borrowers, especially those who had jobs but still refused to pay the minimum instalment of RM100 (S$33) a month.
“We have accumulated RM36 billion in unpaid loans to PTPTN. I am ashamed but they are not.
“They are earning an income and can very well pay, but they don’t pay. It’s just RM100 a month; if you earn RM2,000 a month, what is RM100? But they don’t pay. Why? Because they have no amanah, no trustworthiness,” he said.
He said trustworthiness was a problem with Malaysians, seen not only with PTPTN borrowers. This also applies to others given scholarships and loans to study abroad who refused to pay their dues when they returned.
Malaysians also lacked a sense of shame when failing to do well or to do what is right, Dr Mahathir added.
“When you have a strong feeling of not wanting to be ashamed by your performance, then you will want to achieve the best results. That is how the Japanese achieved success.
“Today, people do not feel ashamed at all. You see them going to jail and smiling. You see people smiling when you tell them, ‘hey, you are a thief’. There is no feeling of shame,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Dr Mahathir also urged students to work hard and repeat exercises and read their books again and again if they were weak in their studies.
Sharing his own experience as a medical student in Singapore, he said he only scored three As compared with others who scored six or eight As in their Senior Cambridge results.
“I realised I had to work very hard. I realised what I had to do was very simple. I had to read my textbooks many times. Ten times or more.
“So that when they ask questions in exams, I had in my mind a picture of the page in the book where they asked the very same thing.”
He added: “So, if you are not good at something, do it again and again and again, many, many times. Between this sense of shame and working hard, you are going to improve yourself.” THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
https://www.todayonline.com/world/malaysians-lack-shame-trustworthiness-says-dr-mahathir
