Thursday, August 09, 2012

Malaysia is the most Sluggish Country in Southeast Asia

I can't help myself to blog about this here when I saw this article shared from a  facebook's friend which stated that Malaysia is the most sluggish country in Southeast Asia, ranked 10th "laziest" nation in the world. The original article is here.

In summary, here is the laziest country scoring based on the survey from "The Lacent"(i.e. TheLancet.com). where the highest the percentage is , the laziest the country is. I'm not sure how they do the survey but it seems like you need to pay for it to get the data.


Laziest Country Scoring

South-east Asia
Malaysia - 61.4% (ranked 10th in the world)
Indonesia -29.8%
Philippines - 23.7%
Thailand - 19.2%
Vietnam - 15.3%
Myanmar -12.7%
Cambodia - 11.2%

Top 3 in the World
Malta - 71.9%
Swaziland - 69.0%
Saudi Arabia - 68.8%


Rest of the Countries
China - 31.0 %
India - 15.6 %



Do you believe it?

The next question is do you believe it? Is Malaysia really that bad? The biggest slacker in South-East Asia? Ranked number 10th in the world? Can you believe it? My first impression was I tried to deny it but after some thoughts, I tend to agree with the survey based on my daily observation in my surroundings. But I could be wrong.

Here are what I observe

  • University standard is getting lower and lower. For example, a basic fundamental of digital logic question, most graduated electrical or electronic student cannot answer that. What's going on? Forgot to tell you, some of them are first class student too.
  • Younger generation cannot take pressure. They like to take short cut (e.g. expecting high increment with minimum effort). When they face challenge, they look for the way out. Is it Generation Y culture? or is it Malaysia problem?
  • Top performer in a company is not really a top performer in a company. I have seen many cases in my company that the top performer is not because they're super good, it is because the rest are too worst! Also, can't find any better than them in the market too.
  • Have a chance to talk to a first class oversea student from Vietnam who study in Malaysia. Her CGPA is 4.0 flat so I curious and  I asked how she did that. She just told me surprisingly Malaysia education standard is very low and students are very lazy, that's why relatively I'm the best. How true? But the above survey seems justify this.
  • Older generation is also getting affected by the laziness culture. Take me as an example, I started to getting to slack more already as compared in the past. This happens to the people who are the same generation with me too. So old and new generation also lazy, what will happen next?

So, what is your take on this? How far do you believe this survey is true? What do you see in your surroundings? Do you see a similar trend that I see?

10 Comments:

LCF on Personal Finance said...

What's the digital logic question you asked interviewee Champ? :)

I am an early Gen Y, I think you are on borderline Gen X and Y?

ChampDog said...

Interestingly, I just asked to explain the function of a 2 to 1 multiplexer. It already fails > 80% of candidates.

Yes, I'm in borderline of Gen X and Gen Y but by definition, I"m in Gen X. :)

Anonymous said...

"She just told me surprisingly Malaysia education standard is very low and students are very lazy, that's why relatively I'm the best."

Yes, I agree that the education standard is very low. However, not all students are very lazy.

Alvin Lim said...

wow....function of a 2 - 1 multiplexer? what is that?
engineering stuff?

but yeah, younger generation nowadays are very lazy and cocky. not all though...but i've seen quite a number. they expect to work less, but be paid a lot. :)

i think it's the way the parents brought them up lo

bamboo investments said...

I would never have guessed this about Malaysia. Really, from a western perspective, I associated Malaysia with other Asian Tigers. It makes me wonder how the culture there could be this much different then other countries in the region? I mean they all have kids who like facebooks and cool apps, right?!

kampunginvestor said...

Expected lar.. All the smart Malaysian talents go to other countries especially Singapore.

3rd world leaders in a country like Malaysia, how to progress? I am not surprised at all with Malaysian being the most sluggish.

So all are registered to vote? :) If still not yet register, please get to me ya!

ChampDog said...

@Anonymous
If education standard is low, it reflects to our future. Hmm...

@Alvin
Yes, just a digital logic. If you take the subject, you may know. I know some computer science or IT students take the subjects too but it is optional. Engineering course should be compulsory, I think.

So it is parent fault mostly? or it is a good thing?

Kris said...

"Interestingly, I just asked to explain the function of a 2 to 1 multiplexer. It already fails > 80% of candidates. " --> FACEPALM if I can find candidate that cannot answer.

That is why I don't dislike doing interviews, pretty waste of time. It is like shifting thru dirt to find the gem.

Some new Gen-Y expect spoon feeding while at work , probably a carry over from UNI.

ChampDog said...

If you're can get a gem, you're lucky! :)

ChampDog said...

@Bamboo Investments, I have no idea. I would have thought the same as well. However, it could due to the political reasons how the Malaysian leaders lead the country towards too. Probably corruptions and the unfair opportunity are the major factor of causing this outcome, I think.

@Kampunginvestor, hi Brother, how come your website always have virus fraud? Somehow Google blocks it, do you know that?

Good point! Not only go to Singapore and also the rest. We have a trouble to retain these talented people and yet we're inviting not so talented people in.

Few friends of mine who married to western people (professional people) and they can't even get a job here in Malaysia although they really want to but at the end they move out to the country.

But interestingly, you see a lot of other foreign workers (mostly blue collar) can easily imported.


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