NOVEMBER 25 ― Malaysians have a particular talent for excusing mediocrity.

Made in Malaysia, for the longest time, used to mean: “You'd be better off buying Made in China because at least it's cheaper.”

For decades, parents have been shouting about our falling education standards, and our children lagging behind their Asian neighbours (and not just Singapore).

What was our (former) education minister's response? That our education is the best! Never mind his own kids studied abroad.

The recent signboard greeting Barack Obama's arrival proclaiming, “Welcome to the President of USA Barack Obama” was greeted with a lot of mocking and derision. Deservedly so.

Unfortunately, it was also greeted by Malaysians going, “I don't get what's wrong with it.”

The main problem here is that it sounds like it came straight off Google Translate. In Malay it would have been “Selamat Datang kepada Presiden USA Barack Obama” but directly transposed to English, it sounds as though the “President of USA” is a destination.

Simply put, you welcome someone to a place, not to a person. Grammatically it is not technically wrong, but the usage is inaccurate. Therefore it should not be written that way, especially as it is on public, official signage.

Fortunately the sign was corrected to an acceptable “Welcome to Malaysia Mr Barack Obama President of USA”. Though it could really just be shortened to “We welcome US President Barack Obama/Malaysia welcomes US President Barack Obama.”

What annoys me is the many Malaysians who defended the earlier error. Some said people were just being pedantic grammar Nazis. Some insisted since it wasn't grammatically “wrong” that it was acceptable usage.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why our kids can't even introduce themselves in English at job interviews. We are so resistant about having and maintaining standards.

It is as if the only standards we can agree to are the standards asked for in government tenders for contractors. Not that those standards are always adhered to, but that is another story altogether.

We have to stop making excuses for our slip-ups. We have to stop treating everything as “small matter lah.” You want to use text-speak or Manglish on social media or on text messages, go ahead. But in official capacities or formal situations, we should have standards.

We must have standards.

Just recently another picture circulated on Twitter of a menu at a dinner in Parliament, where apparently “scissors salad” and “cream brule” was on the menu.

Yes, more occasion for pointing and laughing, I suppose.

My point is this: we have to start owning up to mistakes, we have to start acknowledging we need to have some sort of bar to aspire to.

It is not being snooty, it is not about being pedantic. It is about wanting the best and I think there is nothing wrong with that at all.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.