Happy Independence Day my fellow Malaysians!
I don’t know if it’s just me but somehow I’ve grown more and more patriotic in recent years. My friend Jia from Shanghai is down in KL this week and I was just telling him about Malaysia over dinner. Everything about our history, our people… and all the great things about Malaysia. Speaking of people… do you guys notice that we’re getting a little more civil Malaysian drivers on the road lately?
When I first started driving some 9 years ago, Malaysian drivers on the road were the most aggressive. They will never give way to you if you try to cut into their line. Even fight you till the end like it was some game. These days though I notice that at least 30-50% of the time, whenever I want to switch lanes even in a jam, I find the car before me actually opening up and giving way. Because of that I tend to do that more often too… Do you guys start giving way more?
Well that is.. us normal drivers that is. Except taxi drivers. In my experience taxi drivers in Malaysia still continue the “fight you till the end” policy when it comes to giving way.
Maybe if we keep being nicer on the road and “paying it forward”… in a few years time all Malaysian drivers will start giving way to each other and we’ll be known for the most polite drivers in the region.
In any case Happy Merdeka everyone!
PS: In conjunction with Merdeka, MSN Malaysia came up with a list of the Top 10 Young Malaysians and I just found out today they included me in that list too. Among those in the list are Co Founder of MyEG TS Wong, Zee Avi and Nicol David. Thank you MSN for the feature! I’m proud to be Malaysian!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space