Can Malaysians behave like Japanese during calamity

Let's take a look at what happened in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami struck.The tragedy is still unfolding. The pain and the suffering and the great loss to human lives and property are well observed. Humanitarian efforts in full swing. But, the most amazing thing that unfolded before our very eyes is the discipline among the Japanese people.

One email making its rounds accurately summed up the 10 best traits observed in this tragedy.

Among them:

There was dignity: The people queued up for water and groceries and not a rough word or a crude gesture was observed.

There was grace: The people bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

There was order: There was no looting in shops, no honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

There was tenderness: Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

There was conscious: When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

In similar situations elsewhere, tragedies like this have often brought out the best and the worst in us.

Our humanitarian outreach, our concern and our prayers remind us we are decent human beings. The downside is that looters run riot, business people spike up their prices, and people grab more than what they need.

Here we are thankful that we are not put to the test but if you look at things objectively, you may not have much hope that our people can be as disciplined as the Japanese.

It is a perennial problem for us (Malaysians), come festive seasons, for some essential items to be suddenly scarce or to even disappear from the shelves. We have to regularly enforce laws against profiteering.

When we "balik kampung", we break all the traffic rules to get to where we want to go.

Cutting queues seems to be a national pastime and the fact that we can even subscribe to a service that tells us if we have a traffic summons must surely imply that we do consistently break the law and just hope we don't get caught.

Isn't it scary to think what might happen if we are faced with tough situations where our personal behaviour can have tremendous ramifications on overall civil order?

The secret, I believe, is to behave right in good times so that it will be natural to do likewise in tough times.

We need to understand the concept of sacrifice for the greater good. Then our nation will be a greater society, and we can be a great people.

adopted from The Star On-line