How Traditional Clothes Can Defeat Israel
Introduction
Evidently, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is never-ending since the Israeli government continued to enforce discriminatory restrictions towards Palestinian’s human rights. The tension between two countries is because of what land and how it’s controlled. As well known, Israelis fought for the land because they believe the land is sacred land for them while Palestinian disagree as the land has been their home for over decades. Equally important, this issue has had a major impact upon the world’s politics as it affects other Arabs countries around Palestine. Israelis using harsh methods with guns, bombs, grenades, weapons and others to force Palestinian out of the land. It has been breaking the international laws and losing lives in a large scale. Therefore, we need to improve our country in order for helping Muslim countries who are being victims and stopping Israelis prejudice execution. Ergo, this paper focus on how by implementing the code that students in Malaysia Public Universities are only allowed to wear traditional clothes can defeat Israel? This assignment using technique of SWOT which helps to establish the truth of the topic.
Strengths
Malaysia is a multiracial country with three major ethnics which are Malay, Chinese and Indians beside other races and ethnics. These races and ethnics have different traditions and styles which represent their own culture and social lifestyle then became the symbol of unity to Malaysia. For instance, traditional Malay attire for men is called baju melayu while baju kurung is for the women, Chinese women wear the cheongsam and Indians women attire is sarees. This illustrates that Malaysia is a past orientation state where its citizen appreciates history and tradition of its own cultures with believing that contemporary perceptions of decision making, determination of truth and events should be guided by what happened in the past. Nonetheless, Malaysia also is a well-known collectivism country since its inhabitant focus on the social system rather than themselves. As mentioned by Noordin and Hamali (2009), the self of its members is interdependent with the self of others. Therefore, the cooperation and equality are the important aspect of this society. They tend to rely on their in-groups and hold the belief of all people should have the same opportunity in education, human rights and life.
Next, traditional clothes can be as a symbol of modesty for some races and religious. For example a Malay women wearing ‘tudung’ or headscarf is part of the Islamic dress code that calls for Muslim women to dress modestly. The headscarf is a sign for dignifying women and to protect them from anything evil out there. They need to cover the hair, neck and chest area and leaves only the woman’s face exposed. Also, all traditional clothes are a proper and suitable attire to be wear at all occasions as the designs are very decent and not eye-gouging, suit with Malaysia occasions which prioritize decency. Lastly, wearing traditional clothes can implement the sense of discipline and races, culture and religion appreciation to the students. This can be surely prove as students will feel how importance the traditional clothes are to the next generations and it will really affected how they think and act as they should not do anything contradict with their culture or religion believes. It will also made them to appreciate the art of traditional clothes that are actually very unique as every aspect or design have its own reasons. Wearing traditional clothes will enhance the discipline of the students by not wearing anything that is not proper to the class.
Weaknesses
There are numbers of internal weaknesses that we can figure out if we want to implement this code. The first thing is some of the Malaysia students will say that traditional clothes are not trendy and comfortable. This thing can be list as one of the weaknesses because some of the traditional clothes are made of silk or anything that is not suitable with Malaysia weather. However, there are still many solutions that can be taking such as using cotton fabric which is can absorb the sweat. Meanwhile, there are also people who said that these clothes are not in line with fashion timeline as it goes back to when the oldies are living. For some students, wearing traditional clothes are something that is shameful because of the fashion which is not up to date.
Next, the mentality of Malaysian has been westernized in terms of fashion. Wearing jeans, overall, long sleeved shirt are more common and becoming trendy than wearing traditional clothes in doing activities in everyday life. This westernization is so bad for the Malaysian actually as it has slowly fade the culture of Malaysian itself such as traditional clothes, respecting the eldest and in Malay culture, using hands to eat instead of using fork and spoon. Not many youngsters are realizing this westernization that take place however if we ask the elders about this, they will surely agree. Next, students will also feel bored and not happy when coming to class as they feel that they cannot express themselves through fashion in going to everyday class as there is limited kind of design when it comes to traditional clothes. However, with the creativity in modifying the traditional clothes to express themselves, it will be possible for them to modify it without forgetting the core point of traditional clothes for example, changing the button space of Baju Melayu to zip and maybe creating it with the cotton fabric which can absorb sweat and more comfortable.
Other than that, some locals who came from a well off family lean to deliver their kids to private universities which have different rules and regulations. Consequently, private university usually have twinning programmes with foreign universities which confer the degrees. Thus such programmes allow student to obtain foreign qualifications which will provide added value to the employability of the graduates afterwards. Moreover, private universities veer to have more subject offer than public universities. Accordingly, those who are came from budget family swing to go to public universities and cause paucity in education of fashion. As an example, there is no course or subject relate to fashion in IIUM. Hence, this shortness leads to students with lack of creativity and inventiveness in constructing and modifying the traditional costume to create it more fashionable and presentable.
Opportunities
However, this progress in implementing traditional costumes as a dress code for students in public universities leads to increase Malaysian’s creativity in furtherance of improving the sense of fashion suit with the era without drop the core. Besides, enlarge the uniqueness and self-concept among Malaysian and give assistance to have a significant positive influence on clothing interest among the consumers. They may promote a new fashion concept regarding Malaysia’s traditional costume that are stylish, colourful, with diversity of fabrics, combining elements of casual and so forth in order to catch people interest. Essentially, traditional costumes shown to be associated with the identity and culture of the county, religious beliefs, political events and historical eras which may help to improve Malaysia’s economics internationally by commercial activity. Correspondingly, Malaysia can be appointed as ‘First World’ country which is so called for the developed, capitalist, industrial countries or’ ‘Second World’ industrial country that may assist to procure enormous influence on others. Therefore, in becoming the producing and importing country, Malaysia can succeed in stopping Israel harsh discrimination and helping other Muslim countries by providing basic needs and human rights.
The next one is when the students become creative in modifying the design of the traditional clothes, selling and promoting it to the world would be one of the next opportunity that Malaysia will get. Other countries might become interested in investing in our traditional clothes industry because of our creativity in improving fashion and it is also not possible for Malaysia to get business partners from any countries that are professionalized in recreating the new ideas. Other countries might also become interested on the uniqueness of Malaysia as it has the multi-racial concept which is when it comes to fashion, there will be many mixtures. We must also take note that the investing countries or partners will support our country and will create a good diplomatic relations as it is related with enhancing the good reputation of economics. Last but not least, Malaysia will also be a popular place for tourism because of less social issues in Malaysia. This can be refer to when the students wear traditional clothes in the university, it will lessen the social issues because traditional clothes are all related to decency. Rape or gangsterisme issues can be lessen as the students will have the sense of protecting the races, culture and religion. For example, a girl who wears baju kurung will think how she should act without embarassing her religion and other people will also respect her by the way she dress herself. This will made people outside of Malaysia not feeling scared to come here as it is a safe place and at the same time achieving the target to get the support of other countries.
Threats
Nevertheless, there are some obstacles in order to achieve this target. Firstly, only few people of all around the world who have interest in traditional clothes fashion since people swing to invest in modern and high end brands fashion nowadays. As a result, Malaysia traditional costumes will obscure in the world’s market and sustain high loss after producing and devoting it. Secondly, Israel also known at its best fashion and design. That being so, Malaysia require a comparatively long period of time to be equivalent with them in fashion sectors. Moreover, it takes a little while too for Malaysia to build and assemble a platform and fundamental for the fashion sectors as it is hard to compete and rival other fashion designs that also catch people eyes. For instance, clothing retail outlets from various international brands like H&M, Topshop, Uniqlo, GAP and others have shown their significant presence all over the world. These branded clothing industries hold people interest by various representation regarding consumers with different age groups and become the right target market for them. The next threat is there are many popular and strong fashion competitors in the world. Fashion industry nowadays are highly competitive and the idea to put traditional fashion and modernize it would be really hard as the industry has keep evolving. Malaysia is also not one of the country that is recognize for the arts in fashion. There are numbers of strong competitors to be list such as New York City, Rome, Paris, Milan and London.
All of the listed competitors have been in the fashion industry for years and it will be hard to get the recognition. However it may not be impossible as trying something new is a one thing that made fashion as a unique industry. Last but not least, the biggest threat is Israel is one of the popular country in fashion industry. On March 2018, Israel’s biggest fashion event has been done and it has receive so much attention by the public because of their unique design and the way they came with the ideas. The five innovative technologies and designs are precise;waterless thread dyeing, 3D pattern-making, upcycled textiles, combining old and new techniques and taking embroidery to new limits. However, here we can easily see that the innovation of combining old and new techniques are not something that is impossible and it is same with the case of Malaysians trying to embrace, modify or modernize the traditional clothes.
Conclusion
Defeating Israel is a mission that can be achieved if all parties work together in aligning this code. There are many benefits that Malaysia can gain from various aspects including politics and economics. The resistance will always be gained in doing what drives towards goodness. By implementing the rules only traditional attire is allowed to wear at the Public University, there are many benefits that can be obtained although it takes a long time to generate revenue. However, the efforts and unity of Malaysians against Israel are needed because unity is what makes Malaysia strong and fearful.
References
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- Noordin, F., & Hamali, J. (2009). Individualism-Collectivism and Organisational Value Types: A Case of Malaysian Managers. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 8(4). Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296691024_Individualism-Collectivis m_And_Organisational_Value_Types_A_Case_Of_Malaysian_Managers
- Rinpoche, H.E.T. (2017). Traditional Clothes of Malaysia. Retrieved from https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/art-architecture/traditional-c lothes-of-malaysia.html
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- http://www.lasplash.com/publish/Fashion_Shows/top-ten-fashion-cities-in-the-world.php
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