LETTERS: Malaysia has a different social and cultural climate compared to the UK. It is good to refer to other countries to have an understanding on what their government are doing and to learn from those experiences.
But, directly applying foreign strategies without thoroughly considering the social and cultural climate, as well as the economic reality and health infrastructure and services in place may be more problematic in the long term. What works very well in one country, may not be as successful in another country.
In cultural comparisons, differences are obvious in social conditions where Malaysians are more social and practice lower individualist living compared to the UK. Malaysia is a collectivist society, in which people belong to "groups".
According to Dutch social psychologist, Gerard Hofstede, loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount and overrides most other societal rules and regulations. Such a society fosters strong relationships, where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group (Hofstede).
UK has a higher score of individualism, in which people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. What this means is that regulations that focus on individualistic principles will be more effective in the UK than Malaysia.
Other than the collectivist vs individualistic culture, is a comparison on the Uncertainty-Avoidance dimension. This is about the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways.
The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede).
Both Malaysia and the UK have similar scores on this dimension. Societies with low scores in this dimension have and maintain a relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles and deviance from the norm is more easily tolerated (Hofstede).
This explains why there are so many arrests for RMO violations. Some people will continue to violate restrictions regardless of what strategies are in place to reduce the spread of the pandemic.
Another area of country comparison is long term orientation. This is in relation to accepting and practicing new norms that has been imposed due to the pandemic. Is the existing RMO seen as a short-term or a long-term change?
Long term orientation refers to how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future (Hofstede). A normative society is in which a low score on this dimension prefers to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion.
Malaysia has a normative culture. Normative societies exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results (Hofstede). The UK which has a higher score than Malaysia, take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future. This difference adds to the support that local solutions are best for local contexts.
In addition, compared to Malaysia, the UK has a higher standard of living, less labour market insecurity, better welfare management, and higher levels of trust with the government and government officials. What this translates to is that more stringent strategies in the UK works for the people living in the UK, irrespective of group ethnic and social differences, because supporting systems in place can buffer the impacts of stringent strategies.
On the matter of "seemingly double standards treatment between politicians and the people", research on Power Distance concept may shed some insights. This Power Distance continuum dealswith the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us.
Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally (Hofstede).
Malaysia scores very high on this dimension (score of 100) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organisation is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat.
Challenges to the leadership are not well-received. The UK (score of 35) has a better sense of fair play which drives the belief that people should be treated in some way as equals.
ASSOCIATE PROF DR GESHINA AYU MAT SAAT
Criminologist & Psychologist, Forensic Science Programme, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, USM, Kelantan
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times