LETTER | An article “Why academics must keep to their lanes in public discourse” brilliantly penned by the Academic Staff Association of International Islamic University and published on Sept 1 is a must-read for academics before offering their views to the media.

For example, the comments by a tourism economics lecturer, who is a professor with a doctorate attached to a local public university, resulted in a newspaper report with the heading “Tourists urged to understand M’sian culture before visiting” published on Sept 2.

He was asked to respond to criticisms by foreign tourists who gave Malaysian public toilets a five out of 10 rating as recently published in an online portal.

The tourists complained that the floors were slippery, toilet seats were wet, there was no toilet paper and general cleanliness was found wanting. All these complaints were fair and should not have been refuted out of expediency.

Instead, the academic urged tourists to read up on and understand Malaysian culture and way of life before landing in the country to avoid culture shocks.

But I am even more shocked by the exhortation. How on earth will his message reach incoming tourists? If this is possible, national tourism organisations such as the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board would pay a king’s ransom for such an effective communication channel.

What is culture?

However, bad news spreads faster than good. If the message that tourists intending to visit our country should first read up on and understand Malaysian culture were to go viral, there would be fewer tourist arrivals.

Globally, not many people truly understand culture, including their own. To begin with, what is culture? The word has been bastardised and used too freely for a wide range of subjects. Here, the issue is only the use or misuse of public toilets.

In the same breath, the lecturer said in 2022, public toilets in Malaysia fell short of basic cleanliness standards, as 5,241 within local authority areas were rated two stars or below.

He added “Many Malaysians do not think of public toilets as a shared responsibility, mainly because they have not been properly educated on how to keep them clean. Existing awareness campaigns do not seem to make a lasting impact.”

On this, he was spot on!

Hence, we should just get our act together and not call on foreign tourists to read up on and understand our culture, as countries that follow international norms are popular with tourists and they shy away from destinations that insist all visitors must comply and accept local practices.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.