Malaysia Airlines, as most of us know, has the airline code MH, meaning all its flight numbers begin with those letters.
At some point in time, someone came up with the idea of having those letters stand for "Malaysian Hospitality". It was a brilliant idea.
After all, as a nation, we Malaysians pride ourselves on how hospitable we are. We are polite and caring people, though let's leave out instances when we start talking politics.
Many foreigners have praised us for our hospitality, for how polite we are, and how gracious and kind we are.
We are among the first nations to offer aid when disasters hit overseas. We welcome everyone with open arms when they visit.
All that seems to stop, however, when we begin to view a certain group of foreigners as below our stations in life.
We are talking about refugees and those who come to these beautiful lands in search of work.
On May 5, a woman was charged with abusing and exploiting her Indonesian maid, causing injuries by using a hot iron and hot water on her.
That case is still in court, of course, so nothing can be said about it.
Whether the allegations are true or not, there is no denying that this is an all-too-familiar story, one we have heard many times before. Too many, in fact.
These domestic helpers are burnt, scalded, beaten even sexually abused. They are made to work day and night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Some are not even paid what is due to them.
Some are made to sleep outside the house at night as punishment, placed with the family dogs, which are probably treated better than these poor girls are by the family.
They are left disfigured and scarred for life, both physically and emotionally. In some cases, they end up dead. There have been horrific cases over the years.
The first that usually comes to mind is that of Nirmala Bonat, the then 18-year-old girl who came to work for a boutique owner in 2003 and suffered eight months of being beaten, scalded by hot water and burnt with an iron.
Nirmala was perhaps lucky, if you can call it that, as she survived, though she was maimed horribly by her torture at the hands of her employer.
A worse fate awaited Indonesian Isti Komariyah and Cambodian Mey Sichan several years later.
The poor girls, aged 26 and 24 respectively, were starved to death by their employers, the former in 2011 and the latter the following year. They both weighed just 26kg at the time of their deaths.
What makes some Malaysians feel like some foreigners are below them, just because these people work for them?
What sense of superiority do these people possess that they think they can treat others in such an inhumane way?
To paraphrase the American constitution, all men and women are created equal, though admittedly even that country's own founding fathers did not seem to practise what they preached, considering many were slave owners.
So, why is it we treat those who work for us like slaves, to be used and abused as we please? But while we shake our heads at such criminal behaviour, we need to look in the mirror as well.
How do we treat the foreign workers at petrol stations? Are we rude to the foreign nationalities who work at restaurants?
Now, let's forget about foreigners and look at how we treat our fellow Malaysians who may be doing menial tasks or working at jobs we would never consider doing.
All these may seem like little, insignificant things, but they can lead to bigger things down the road. It is actually pretty simple. Put yourselves in their shoes and think about how you would feel if you were to be treated that way.
In short, do unto others as you would have done unto you.
The writer is a news editor with the 'New Straits Times'. A big fan of the Red Devils, he is often seen wearing a Manchester United jersey on his days off
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times