LEGENDARY is the Malaysian act of compassion and generosity, extending beyond the call of duty and occasionally done with personal sacrifice. Not a
week passes without anecdotes of random acts of kindness, either to a helpless fellow human being, local or foreign, or to hapless animals in need of rescue, going viral.
A recent story tells of a food delivery rider's simple yet inspiring act — picking up vanilla bread for a struggling mother's autistic child in the dead of night.
Then there are police officers and firefighters rescuing domestic animals in distress.
Stories abound of Malaysians giving beggars spare cash and food, assisting workers carrying heavy gear or helping the elderly with their groceries.
Hundreds, if not thousands of Malaysians, donate food, money and time to ease the troubles of the homeless and food delivery riders. These feats of compassion are a Malaysian trait, simple but profound, and perhaps more powerful than calls for unity.
The details are in the humdrum: the compassion is as habitual as breathing, only different in location and context. Is there a more quintessential narrative of Malaysian spirit? Amid today's tense racial discord, fuelled by self-serving political actors, these narratives of neighbourliness are fleeting as they fade with time and circumstance.
Malaysians' penchant for helping and comforting strangers — even amid dissenting voices over race, religion, and culture — remains the bedrock of the nation's progress. Always.
During natural calamities, Malaysians volunteer, rally and donate to furnish food and shelter, fortified by empathy and hospitality. It's why the sobriquet "gotong-royong" was conceived to define communal cooperation.
It explains Malaysians' love of hosting and thronging open houses, eager to interact and dig into favourite cuisines.
It doesn't stop there: foreign tragedies also prick Malaysians' conscience. Bosnians, Palestinians, Vietnamese boat people, Rohingya refugees, anyone who was ever oppressed, and victims of the Asian tsunami have benefited from Malaysia's altruism.
Still, this benevolence invites insensitive consternation of the self-righteous who demand that welfare must begin at home.
Perhaps, but in perspective, our welfare recipients live in a paradise: all it needs is a little patience before help arrives. Not though the anguished foreigners: they are hard-pressed for time
to avert tyranny, savagery, plunder and murder.
Regrettably, some welfare recipients slipped through the cracks: homelessness forced on the evicted and infirmed senior citizens abandoned by their families.
However, in typical first responders' reactions, these incidents are quickly corrected once the bad news spreads. Successive generations have been melded in the same template of mercy: call it the classic Malaysian DNA.
But be warned: the day Malaysians turn callous to the misfortunes of others marks the "end times", the ruination of a philanthropic nation we built and
cherished.
