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Feb 20, '07 12:00 AM
for everyone

I'm convinced that Malaysia exists on a different time continuum that is 30 minutes slower than the rest of the world.

From wedding dinners to appointments to "I'm on the way", everyone seems to be consistently late!

Have you noticed that often the people closest to the venue are later than the people furthest from the venue?

I remember a weekly leaders meeting I used to attend in Taman Tun. I came all the way from Subang Jaya and was always at least 5 minutes early, and yet, this couple who lived on the road behind would come consistently 15 minutes late.

Traffic jam? Give me a break!

Is our watch broken or is there something wrong with our eyesight?

Just recently I wanted to pass something to a friend. I got this sms saying "I'm at home right now, why don't you meet me at my workplace. I'll be there at 9am."

Guess what time the sms was sent to me?

Yes, you guessed it, 9am!!!

Even if my friend drove like a mad man, he would have reached his workplace earliest at 9.15am! So, if I got there at 9am, I would be waiting like an idiot for him.

Needless to say, I went to his house to pass him the thing. At 9.15am, he still hadn't left yet!

I believe that if you don't respect people,
don't expect people to respect you.

In the same way, if you don't respect people's time,
don't expect people to respect your time.

When I was involved in the "An Oily Affair" production, most of the cast and crew were consistently late between 30 minutes to an hour. At one time, the actual shoot started 4 hours later from the time I was told to be there!!!

So, after this happened about 6 times, I decided that my watch was broken and that I should add at least 1 hour to the time I was told to be there.

Guess what? At the next practice, everybody decided to fix their watches and arrived on time. So now it was, "Where is David??!?! Why is he late?!?!?!".

If you don't respect people's time, don't expect people to respect your time.

I have set my watch to be 5 minutes fast ever since I was a prefect in secondary school. We were very strict about being at our place of duty on time. As a result, if I got there on time, it would mean that I was always 5 minutes early.

Punctuality is a choice and a habit.

How many of us go to work late everyday? We wouldn't dare less we get sacked. But for every other appointment, we don't really care if we are late or not.

So, does this mean that if there is no loss to us, we don't really care to be punctual? Isn't that fundamentally selfish?

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be self-righteous as though I'm the most punctual person in the world.

In fact, I used to be more punctual than I am today. I've allowed the frustratingly consistent lateness of the people around me to affect me.

But now, it's time to take up the punctuality challenge again. It's time to reset our Malaysian time clocks and watches to real time. It's time to respect people's time so that people will respect our time.

If you're up for this challenge, let's synchronize our watches!

Tags: malaysia time

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10 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

kennethfung84 wrote on Feb 19, '07

haha.. personally I've always believed in setting my watch accurately according to whichever clock that is most significant.... like either the clock at church, at work or in my lecture hall... I never liked the idea of creating illusions for myself so that I won't be late... My policy is a habit to leave earlier than needed so that I can be there at least 20 minutes early... I'm so un-Malaysian sometimes...

jesslynn wrote on Feb 19, '07

It's become a Msian tradition uknow. and sometimes when that person said he/she will be there around 9am, they'll alwiz turn up late for thinking that the others will be turning up late anyway, so y be so early?

prettywhackygur wrote on Feb 19, '07

My clock's half an hour in advance. No-la, I know this to be a painful Malaysian habit. Two wrongs do not make one right. This is not right. We shouldn't be influencing everyone else to come late, but rather we should influence them to come early. Just get very grumpy when they are late. That might work. If it's a lunch date, I think I'd probably cancel that appointment until they learn how to arrive on time. I used to be late too every day for almost everything... when I went to study in Perth, boy I suffered. That's when I learn how to respect time.

prettywhackygur wrote on Feb 19, '07

Btw, David, did you draw that clock thingy? Nice.

cafedavid wrote on Feb 19, '07

errr...no. acknowledgements to www.think.com.my. It's cool ya?

jefflhlow wrote on Feb 19, '07

I still learning to be punctual in every appointment. I used to be like that but now in every appointment I rather early 1 hours than late 1 minute. It's not easy though!

zecount wrote on Feb 20, '07

talk about being late, i remember i attend a function that was suppose to start at 9 sm and the "orang besar" came 1 hour late ... and summore the speech long like nobodies business ..hello ...ur on a schedule ...sheesh...keep to it man ... like a chinese proverb ..if the top not straight, bottom also not straight

jinchong wrote on Feb 20, '07

kenneth is one of the punctual-iest person i've known.. hehehe..
i think its the matter of urgency. if we put urgency in everything, then i think all of us would be early..

simpangampat wrote on Feb 22, '07

hope u r not talking abt me huh.. anyway, i wish i could hv been a prefect during school time. no wonder la.. aiya! this is serious, last time i was veri punctual wan, but now always late a bit.. why? fectup of waiting... so instead of waiting... i hv turned to being wait:))

cafedavid wrote on Feb 22, '07, edited on Feb 22, '07

i think this is what has happened to most of us. we give the unpunctual people too much control. because they are always late, we get fed up and also start coming late.

i believe that the secret is to enforce punctuality when you are in control. for example, if you are the one organizing the dinner, just start on time whether or not everyone is there.

often, we will wait until everyone arrives before we start. therefore, the latecomers will never bother to come on time because they know we will always wait for them.

if you are not in control (as i wasn't in the An Oily Affair example above), there is nothing much you can do.

but when you are in control, you have no one else but yourself to blame if you punish the punctual and reward the latecomers by following Malaysian time.

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