BY: KARTIK SUBRAMANIAM

If the question is posed to a visitor to Malaysia: “What is it that strikes you most about Malaysians?” and about three out of ten of these tourists would state that local people like to share and care and they have big, generous hearts.

This is the basic and general impression of the Malaysian spirit of sharing and caring that must never be lost, no matter what the state of the nation is, the fostering of goodwill and national unity among the diversified races should be here to stay.

Not only must this thrust of sharing and caring be continued but it must be augmented and strengthened on the specious grounds and belief that “what goes around comes around” or “one good turn deserves another.”

While this sharing and caring spirit has long been in existence in Malaysia there have been no thorough or exhaustive studies done on how it evolved though there are a number of historians who offer some insight into the issue.

Perhaps a possible reason for the sharing and caring spirit in Malaysians could be that, over the centuries, the early inhabitants of this country mixed and mingled with each other and overcame their fears and reservations.

But whatever it is, this sharing and caring ideology of Malaysians is a distinguishing trait of the people of this country, not only in Peninsular Malaysia but also in the East of Malaysia in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher