Differences between Malaysian and Western culture

What I believe is the biggest cultural difference between the Netherlands and Malaysia that has the most impact is the religion. Maybe not so in the actual work environment in my office, but in daily life and everything around it. What I believe is a great example is one of the projects I assisted on: the launch of a new ‘halal’ toothpaste from Colgate. During Ramadan Muslims have to fast, and when doing that really strict you are not even allowed to swallow your own saliva. So brushing your teeth is really hard, and a lot of Muslims don’t do that during the day. So oral hygiene becomes a problem. Colgate came up with a solution for that problem: Kayu Sugi toothpaste. Kayu Sugi is a plant Muslims used to brush their teeth with hundreds of years ago. It is even mentioned (not in the Quran) that the Prophet Muhammad himself recommended its use. Muslims chewed on the end of a stick (a good comparison is the Dutch ‘zoethout’) and used that to clean their teeth. The stick contains disinfectant ingredients, has substances that strengthens the gum and prevents teeth from colouring. By using the Kayu Sugi ingredients in their toothpaste Colgate created a ‘halal’ toothpaste which Muslims could use to brush their teeth during Ramadan.
Because the official religion in Malaysia is Islam, Ramadan plays a big role in the society. I was in Malaysia during the entire Ramadan period and you really can notice the difference between normal day life and life during this period. Because people are not allowed to eat or drink anything during the day (officially from sunrise to sunset) they ate at 07:15 pm and really early in the morning. This meant that at 07:15 pm literally all Muslims were at home eating. So if for example you needed a taxi, you would be waiting an awful long time because only non-Muslim Chinese and Indian taxi drivers would be working. Malay restaurants were only allowed to open at 03:00 pm and only allowed to start selling food at 07:00 pm. Funny detail is that Muslims in restaurants or at food stalls would sit at their table with a big plate of food in front of them and wait until it was 07:15 pm and then started eating. If you wanted something to eat before that time you had to go to a non-Malay restaurant.
Besides that some Muslim people could get a little grumpy during the day because they were hungry and didn’t have much sleep. At my office only three Muslims were working and they were pretty serious with their jobs. But I heard stories from one of my flat mates, who did an internship at Guinness Anchor Berhad (brewer of beers like Guinness, Tiger and Heineken), that the Malay workers usually were late at work and sometimes even slept during working hours. The ones who were there by car usually left early to evade the traffic jams in the city and be home before 07:00 pm. So Ramadan did disrupt the work pace at the office and the brewery.
On the other hand, with Hari Raya: the big party after Ramadan, Muslims are very hospitable and invite everyone, including us, to have Hari Raya breakfast with them. Everybody is dressed up in their best traditional clothing and the atmosphere is great everywhere. It was nice to see a traditional Malay Hari Raya breakfast with the common Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leafs and
loads of sweet stuff.
I have written about the different cultures in Malaysia and how there supposed to be some struggles between the different ethnic groups. I have not experienced real struggles in Malaysia and I must say that at the office and in the working environment I have seen even less. It used to be the blue collar workers (like taxi drivers, shop owners, waiters etc.) who would be giving their opinions about other ethnic groups. In my experience and the environment I was in, all the different people work great together and there is absolutely no sign of any troubles between colleagues. That is another interesting difference with a lot of European countries is the respect people have for each other when doing business. Abdullah (2001) did a survey among local and foreign managers to characterize the behaviours of the Malaysian workforce. 8 Core Malaysian values were observed: Malaysians are group-oriented, relationship-oriented, there is big respect for elders, loyalty to superiors and organization is high, there is a strong social hierarchy, Malaysians –especially Malays- identify with a particular religion and religion plays a big role in their lives, Malaysians are often happy in their work if they have harmonious relations with superiors and face-saving (not embarrassing or humiliating people in front of others) is important.
A nice example of the great respect is the ritual of swapping business cards. In the Netherlands you would take the card and put it in your jacket or agenda or anything. And that’s it. In Malaysia you are expected to take the card using two hands (both hands in a fist and hold the card between both thumbs and index fingers), always look at the business card of the other longer than he looks at your business card (you can imagine it usually takes a few seconds before the cards are put away) and never put the card in your trousers, that’s very disrespectful.
Although so many religions and different cultures exist in Malaysia I have not found that was a problem in the working environment. Colleagues were always respectful to each other and to clients.
I was taken to a lot of client meetings at my work even if the meetings were about projects that were not my own. I was the only ‘white’ employee in the office, and for Malaysians that apparently still is some kind of status symbol. So although I hardly had anything to say in some meetings they took me along so they could show others that expats were working in the office. So in the Malaysian culture people are still looking up to the Western cultures.
Another important aspect of working with the media is the freedom of press. Malaysian citizens do enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression as stated in the Federal Constitution. But in the 30 years after the constitution was promulgated some additional clauses were added that restrain that freedom. Under Malaysian law, people are not allowed seditious and hateful comments towards others and especially the government. For example, it is strictly forbidden to report anything that reflects badly on the president or monarch, or their family and close associates.
I wrote earlier that Malaysia was placed 92nd of 168th countries in the worldwide press freedom index in 2006, reported by Reporters Without Borders, consultant to the UN (www.rsf.com). In 2008 they dropped to place 132, as their index dropped from 22 to 39,5. A complete list is added in Annex 3.
Most of the media are controlled by different political parties. The major dailies and weeklies are controlled by the parties from Barisa Nasional, the coalition who is in control. The biggest party, the UMNO, for instance controls the New Straits Times, the Sun and Berita Harian. The Star is runned by the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), also a member of Barisa Nasional. The political parties decide what and what is not to be in the news. This is why people in Malaysia make a joke that UMNO stands for ‘U (stands for ‘you’) Must Now Obey’. The opposition - and heavily Muslim - parties do not control any significant media. Any other media that is not controlled by politics can’t write what they want: “The wider effects of the Act upon freedom of expression, the media and the development of civil society in Malaysia have been far reaching. Authorities continue to intimidate writers, associations and publishing companies towards self-censorship and restrict the expression and circulation dissenting opinions against NGOs and other social commentators.” (Benedict, 2007)