Malaysians with first class mentality?

A brief LRT ride to work this morning has enlightened me how far we are from achieving first class mentality. Not that I really believe we are anywhere near first class, but since Pak Lah has been constantly telling Malaysians to be first class or world class...

Back to the LRT ride. The train was very late today, not as what the management has promised - train will arrive every 3 minutes.

A pleasant looking old couple boarded at one of the stops. To my surprise, no one who were seated actually stood up to give up their seats. Coincidentally, all four young passengers nearest to the couple were dozing off in their seats. My attempts to 'wake' these people by knocking lightly on the glass panel next to the seats failed. Looked like these people were in deep slumber.
Another old lady came on board at the next stop. She started chatting with the old couple. They were talking about how they need to get use to the new trend of competing with the younger generation to get seats and there is no more special treatment for senior citizens. They consoled themselve by saying that luckily they are still in good shapes due to frequent exercise. They moved on to how the younger generation today are not treating the elderly the same way as they used to anymore. They even blame this on the West. Since I stood just in front of them I quickly clarified that during my 3-year stay in London, the society there are highly civic minded and show no such behaviour in general. Deep inside I felt quite embarassed for the young passengers seated near me as I felt I belong to the same generation. Then one of the old ladies tried to console herself by saying that perhaps young people nowadays are too tired and they need a lot of rest.

Twenty minutes later, the three senior citizens got off at KL Sentral station. The four seated passengers were still sleeping. I find it hard to believe that they were totally not aware of the presence of these old folks for the last twenty minutes!

My stop came next. On my way out of the train, I realised that there were two other old ladies who were squeezed in between the crowd in the LRT. Sigh.

It is a sad day for me. Finally I have seen this frequently reported situation with my own eyes. Can we be a first class nation when we are going backwards in social development?

Finally I've let out all my anger and disappointment...