MALAYSIAN society is quietly paying a terrible price for an unequal culture that celebrates speed, wealth, and influence above care, fairness, and human dignity. The result is a cascade of psychological harms touching children, parents, and working adults – harm that, if unaddressed, can push vulnerable people towards the unthinkable.
Children notice unfairness early. When classrooms reward only the fastest, the best resourced, or the most connected, quieter or slower learners internalise failure. Bullying follows when social status becomes currency, and for some children, these pressures breed anxiety, depression, and a cruel persistent sense that they do not belong.
Parents shoulder another burden. Many feel they must run faster – juggling multiple jobs, extra tutoring – to keep their children “competitive”. That relentless pressure erodes parental wellbeing, weakens family bonds, and reduces the capacity to notice when a child is suffering.
Parents who lack resources or influence worry constantly, face stigma, and receive fewer opportunities to recover from setbacks. Their despair can become intergenerational.
Working adults live under similar distortions. When workplaces reward influence and speed above integrity and collaborations, employees face unrealistic expectations and schedules, and punitive evaluations.
Those without access to networks or capital find themselves repeatedly passed over. The resulting chronic stress, shame, and social isolation contribute to depression, substance misuse and, tragically, suicidal thinking.
We must call out the structural and cultural biases that make success appear for the fast, rich, and influential. These biases are not abstract; they show up in school funding gaps, in hiring and promotion practices that favour connection over competence, in social media economies that equate worth with curated success, and in community narratives that stigmatise need. Left unchecked, they create moral injury.
We cannot accept a culture that narrows “success” to a privileged few while the rest pay with their health and, in the worst cases, their lives. A humane community lifts those who stumble, cares for the stressed, and measures success by how well every person can thrive – not by the size of someone’s bank account or number of followers.
Let us choose policies and practices that reflect that conviction before more lives are lost.
IRENE LOPEZ
Port Klang, Selangor
