Weeks before COVID-19 breaks out, there is circulation of anime posters “Why Malaysians Wont Survive The Zombie Attack”. At that point of time, Malaysians regarded it as a mimic, depicting the ugly truth of our society. Most of them are relatable. It is only a matter of time the panic rush appear, COVID-19 alters our way of life. This is not the best time – a depressing beginning for 2020.
It is interesting to zoom the level of resilience to the Malaysian society in 2020 and onwards. Young Malaysians are believed to be distant from the concept of Resilience. We utilise Generation Era classification as a concept to understand the characters of each generation. We then compare with some historical explanation to see the level of resilience.
FIRST, The decreasing number of the Baby Boomers (Born 1946 – 1954) and Extinction of Post War Cohort (1928 – 1945)
Generation of Post War Cohort (PWC) is the most resilient society exists today, although outnumbered. They experience the unstable world order resulting from the Great Depression, and World War 1. In fact they usher World War 2 while they were young, which makes them understood the gravity of peace and conflicts throughout. PWC understands in times of conflict, life is the only thing matters. Business and wealth, mental health, luxurious and healthy lifestyle were very much alienated back then, as people were struggling to breathe.
Malaysia (Tanah Melayu) did not directly involved with series of World War and The Great Depression. But our PWC experienced the brutality of Japanese Occupation (1942-1945). Chinese ethnic PWC were hunted, tortured brutally, leading into an ethnic massacres. Malay ethnic PWC were put under strict surveillance, which would also lead to the same fate as Chinese PWC if they betrayed the Japanese.
The explanation above could only be justified with historical records and confession reviews of related individuals. Food note: My late grandmother will scold us for leaving unfinished meal, because starvation and food rationing were the trend once. She would teased us for having cakes, pastries and variety of cooking, while her generation could survive by eating potatoes and salt for months.
Their forceful adaptation to the Occupation is what has made them resilient.
I would hypothetically put – had this generation survived and experience COVID-19 and Restricted Movement Order (18 March till current), they would comfortably accept it without a word.
Unfortunate enough, they are outnumbered.
SECOND, The Leading Baby Boomer Generation (1946 – 1954) and The Jones Generation (1955 – 1965)
We consider both generations as the Boomers Generation (BG). BG faces stability while we were still on our road to independence. Colonialism during this time was civilized, charting path to nation building (in the Commonwealth through out). No grave violence, massacre, ethnic cleansing was recorded. Throughout the world, colonialism / imperialism is a decreasing trend, which empires began to release their colony peripheries. Therefore, BG faces nationalism through a modern resistance like writing, publication, negotiation and referendum.
Note: Malaysia gained independence through negotiation with the British, not by war.
BG is at the top of Malaysian society today. They lead families, schools, companies, organisations and the country. Resilience for them can be considered moderate, as they have undergone national disasters of 1969 Riot, Asian Financial Crisis 1998, and a small impact of the Subprime Crisis 2008. They survived the crisis with maneuvering tactics and adaptation because every crisis would teach new policies and structure. BG is also deeply impacted by COVID-19, which made them unease.
LASTLY, The Problems of Generations X (1966 – 1976), Y – Millenials (1977 – 1994) and Z (1995 – 2015)
Most affected generations are the ones from XYZ. Being born not in the time of major catastrophes, XYZ do not experience hardships. Along the process of Malaysian development, they accustomed to the struggles of other developing countries. Poverty is put at 0.4%, and is rated better using the poverty line index. Equipped with technological advancement at their fingertips, the struggle has always different from previous generations. Communication becomes effortless, interconnectedness is at the peak regardless of distance, age, race or other factors.
XYZ suffers from Instant Gratification Syndromme (IGS) as a result of speed in daily life. Things are moved swiftly, as well easy. For instance, communication was so scarce before 1980, making the boomers generation value real human interaction, and the quality of time spent. Going for a movie date was a privilege, which remembered as a very special moment to be cherished. These are very much different today. Telephone conversation is largely replaced with instant messages. Society pleasure is at easy access, which makes XYZ hard to keep memories and vulnerably affected, if the pleasure is restricted.
Lets make no mistake – we do not claim that XYZ is free from any hardship and struggles in life. Mental health could be life detrimental, which was never be an issue of the past. They have problems which are new and difficult to be mitigated but it is no way similar to their PWC period.
Therefore, the reason why we are so restless throughout COVID-19, is because we do not embrace and live with resilience. Our plight is focusing towards pleasure maximization, not survival. It is an observation world wide as we do not think this is a local issue but could be seen as an issue in major developing and developed countries.
Robert Schuller once said, Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do.
