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By Mihar Dias October 2025
It began with four words that should never have been typed: “Hi uncle pig. Do you eat pork?”
A schoolgirl sent that message to her elderly bus driver — the same man who had faithfully driven her to school every morning.
When his son shared it online, Malaysians were outraged. One commenter said, “If my mother heard me say that, I’d be forced to eat chillies.” But today’s kids don’t fear chillies, or much else.
Once upon a time, we stood up when a teacher entered the classroom. We said “Good morning, sir,” and meant it.
We didn’t call people who served us names.
Now, we have 12-year-olds calling adults pigs, and parents rushing to apologise on their behalf. The father’s apology in this case came too late. The child had already learned the modern Malaysian lesson: behave badly, say sorry, move on.
When adults stop correcting their children, they quietly endorse the behaviour. That’s how disrespect becomes the new normal.
We’ve built a generation fluent in sarcasm, fluent in mockery, but illiterate in empathy.
Their moral teachers aren’t parents or educators — they’re influencers and streamers. Loud, rude, and gloriously unfiltered, they’ve turned arrogance into entertainment. Every viral clip rewards cruelty. Every “like” normalises bad manners. Why say “thank you” when “whatever” gets more views?
We shouldn’t be surprised when students copy what they see. They imitate their online heroes — people who insult for laughs and treat disrespect as confidence.
When that’s the new standard, the school bus driver never stood a chance.
If this continues, Malaysia won’t just lose manners. It’ll lose its moral compass. Picture classrooms where teachers quit after being mocked online, cafés where teenagers snap at waiters, homes where parents apologise to children for setting curfews.
Respect will become nostalgic — like cassette tapes and Sunday school — something we talk about but never practise.
We’re raising children who know how to argue but not how to apologise, who demand rights but sneer at responsibility. And then we wonder why society feels colder, angrier, louder.
We love to talk about moral education and “Pendidikan Karakter.”
But what’s the point when, the moment something happens, parents rush to protect their child instead of teaching consequence?
Character isn’t formed through PowerPoints or posters about values. It’s forged through discomfort and discipline.
Maybe what this generation needs isn’t another government campaign about kindness.
Maybe it just needs to rediscover a word our grandparents understood well: shame. The healthy kind — the kind that stops you from humiliating someone who’s been kind to you.
The bus driver made the right decision when he said, “It’s over.” His bus may have stopped for one rude student, but symbolically, it represents something far greater — the moment when decency decided it no longer wanted to ride with us.
If we keep excusing insolence in our young, one day we’ll wake up to find we’ve built a society where everyone talks but no one listens. Where children mock their elders, parents negotiate with misbehaviour, and teachers simply give up.
When that day comes, “Hi uncle pig” won’t shock anyone anymore. It’ll just sound like the new Malaysian greeting.
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Mihar Dias writes cynically about society, politics, and the strange creatures we are becoming in the name of progress.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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