The prime minister recent call for the Malay community to have great mindsets which do not dwell on petty issues resonates well with the public at large.

One cannot notice that the old values of the Malay community of yesteryears like respect for the elders, consideration and helping others without being asked have diminished and instead replaced with bad habits like gossiping and condemning the successes of others.

Greed and arrogance seems to be the new mantra of the Malay community which has achieved a certain degree of success. But our physical successes is not in tandem with our social graces. As the adage goes, 'you can take the people out of the village but you cannot take the village out of the people'.

The decay in the moral values of our youth is testament that our secular education system which is without a religious background has failed. It has produced graduates who can pray and sin at the same time.

We have to admit that the ills of the Malay community seem to be rising with many incidences of murder, bullying, rape, incest and drug abuse. Abuse of power and corruption are mostly done by Malay civil servants who want the easy way to success and wealth.

I believe the main reason for the Malays having these bad attitudes is because of the intense jealously between the have and have-nots in their own community. Nowadays, if you want to be rich and powerful, you don't have to study or work hard. You just have to join the ruling Malay party where with the right political connections, business opportunities will fall onto your lap in due time.

Malays are known to be good at criticising others for their shortcomings. Rather than wasting their time gossiping about others, it would be good if they can exercise their brains by reading and writing to improve on their communications skills not unlike the Japanese and other Westerners.

It is a cardinal sin to speak ill of others behind their backs as it can lead a person to the gates of Hell instead of the stairways to Heaven. Gossiping ('mengumpat' dan 'menfitnah') is a great sin in Islam

Where are the towering Malays personalities of before whom we admired for their grit and determination? People who achieved greatness without 'crutches' like of the late Suffian Hashim, a great legal mind, the late Harun Hashim, another eminent jurist, and former prime minister Hussein Onn.

Others include Pak Sako, a giant in the field of journalism and the late Sheik Hamdan Tahir, a leading figure in the education field in the 60s and 70s. Even now in the field of entertainment, the late P Ramlee has no peers (he is considered the Charlie Chaplin of Malaysia). And let us not forget the late Moktar Dahari who was an icon in local football.

If only the Malay community can go back to the tenets of their Islamic teaching which abhor negative attitudes, God willing, we can be a race that can stand tall together with others. Hopefully then, the ills in our society, such as corruption and abuse of power, can be reduced significantly.

The Malay community itself has to take stock of the prime minister's call and do a lot of soul-searching to improve themselves for the better.