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Sakmongkol ak 47

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Friday 16 November 2012

The Fox that Grieves over the Death of Rabbits



Actually the policy to help the poor is not a bad idea. The policy to provide opportunities to the Malays so that they get a chance to improve is a good one. However instead of teaching the Malays how to catch fish, they were given fish. However in the process of distributing the fish, the ikan bilis were distributed to the poor while the big ones were kept by UMNO for themselves. That is where the programme failed, not on the intent but in the implementation. Add corruption to this mix and you have what you have today. Look at Bernas, no one in the right mind would want Bernas to be in the hands of a private company of an individual. It should have been a professionally managed company with the profits returned back to the farmers who would be made shareholders of this company.

The above is a response from one of my readers. The comment contains 2 important points I wish to make. (1) The idea of a welfare state justifies the encroachment of government deeper and deeper into the economic affairs of individuals (2) the expansion of government which started with good intent is later corrupted by the very good people with good intentions selecting and picking winners in the economic race. This allows one section of the group, community, population to pull away from the rest with unfair outcomes.
The idea of an unchecked welfare state is not good because it leads to the underuse of living skills such as competitive drive, adaptability, independence of mind. Example: after 55 years of UMNO rule, it has not succeeded in liberating the Malay mind from dependence on patronage. As a result the Malays, by and large lose the skills I mentioned above.
The earlier article I write was not suggesting that we do away with the noble intent of welfare programs. Care for the aged, infirmed and many unfortunates must continue.
But the utopia involving the promise of security from cradle to grave is fraught with danger of a turn to tyranny and misery. The tyranny of the elected majority over the governed majority. The greatest danger is the promise of a world of plenty shared equally excuses the government to do whatever it wants. The UMNO government has always been big on its own New Deal. So, UMNO is able to tell the following story-people, the present situation we are facing proves the failure of the market system. In order to mend that, government must grow bigger. So you must support our spending ways and support our request to stay in power.
Well, we beg to differ.
When Najib Tun Razak took over, he declared the age of the government knows best (read big government) is over. Anyone can make claims and Najib is the maestro in making such promises because he wants to be a popular PM. Long on slogans, short on substance.
The real truth is- we have moved even deeper into embracing the belief of overstretched social responsibility and a centralized and a powerful government. We have moved away from the belief in personal or individual responsibility, laissez faire and a decentralized government. And all those who support bigger government because of the promises of monopoly, licenses and largesse, are eager to pitch in with Najib’s agenda of a bigger government.
The truth is, the age of big government, Najib’s own New Deal are very much the driving forces behind UMNO’s longevity. When Najib took over Federal debt was RM 200 billion. In the short years he took over, federal debt has gone beyond the RM500-billion mark. So, Najib was just speechifying when he declared the age of big government knowing what is best is over.
Next year, the federal government’s debt will reach RM503 billon nearing the 55% mark of our national income. Government has expanded into every field of economic activities making a mockery of his pompous declarations. Add the government guarantees on contingent liabilities of over 100 billion, the debt is actually more than 55%. This government is a frivolous spender.
we have been made to believe that benevolent public servants, disinterested experts must assume power that selfish economic people-unfriendly theorists had abused. Just as Roosevelt said in his inaugural Address and about his New Deal- Najib is now saying the moneychangers must be chased out from the high seats in our temple.
Malaysians must never be deceived by Najib’s publicity drive. Today mixing with youths all arranged by Star, yesterday jiving with the young who were more interested at looking at the Korean scantily clad singers. Garlanded at Batu caves declaring the government will stop the condominium project when the project was approved by BN government.  
Can we trust the fox that grieves over the death of rabbits?

22 comments:

walla 16 November 2012 at 10:20  

This comment that i am writing here for the earlier post is as applicable to this one; forgive me, i am a bit slow these days:

It's not just a tale of two halves. It's also a tale of two places. Putrajaya's Umno in only one arid location versus the rest of Malaysia in all of Tanah Air. The Umno gomen crumpling in every place versus the Rakyat Of Malaysia rising in waves of anger.

You can easily see an instance of that in the Batu Caves condo fiasco. It was Umno's Barisan that approved the construction. Same culprit in polemically denying it had approved the construction. Now still the same culprit in trying to bribe (read: blackmail) the voters of Batu Caves to say the project will be cancelled if they vote for the same Barisan come GE13.

But those who can think will argue that if they vote for Barisan in order to stop the construction, they will be opening themselves to blackmail. If Sibu can fight that, why can't Batu Caves? Furthermore, they argue that if they allow Najib to get away with this coercion, then they will be sullying their faith in order to save their heritage which was threatened by the same one who now bears a corrupting olive branch. After all, which faith allows for bad deed followed by a lie followed by a promise made by the same perpetrator? If they vote for Barisan, wouldn't it then be velluism not hinduism?

The same type of argument you can apply to the tale of two halves. Take our suburban places. Having seen almost all of them over a long period of time including two instances where hundreds had folded amidst financial crises, I am not so sanguine they won't reach an eclipse. Why? Because the global war for talent has seeped into our own borders where the talented will move to the big cities from the suburbs, and from the big cities to hubs of free enterprise overseas.

Without talent and entrepreneurship, it is hard to develop a place even if it is paved with infrastructure. People must see a potential market and have ideas to develop and profit from it. In the suburbs with limited buyers, resources and options, unsophisticated needs and means, and a relatively weak workforce made up mainly of imported foreign manual workers, the best that can be done is sweatshop operations in the backyard behind the mom-n-pop shops selling chickin' biskut and kopi putih.

Sure, we may see banks of factories making garments, tiles, rubber and wooden products, and foundries and workshops. But having seen what some other countries have arrayed running as far as the eye can see, these local signs of enterprise are just ephemeral cut-and-build's canopied in clouds of uncertainty and limited in their capacity to grow because they are basically proprietorships whose tenure is only as long as their founders.

Additionally, because they are mostly OEMs exposed to a large extent to market vagaries and loan servicing terms, they can fold as fast as they can fly. There's no strong IP value in any of them to buffer them against strong headwinds of constant change. They are dependent on repeat customers and not the new ones who will bring real growth and pressure to improve.

The genesis of enterprise in the semi-rural towns was the sole businessman with a yearning to improve the lot of his family but with little education and connection. So he started young, and used his hands in manual work. Then he used his brain and eyes and saved enough through years of painful sacrifice to buy a small asset.

He worked on that asset until he could buy a few lots of rubber trees. The yield was then sold and money made to change his attap house to a brick house whose courtyard was strewn with bric-bracs accumulated from years of activity.



walla 16 November 2012 at 10:21  

When a family came into his life, he realized by just looking around the economy his business was sitting in and looking at the state of politics in the country that there was little to support his generational yearnings for a really better lifestyle.

So he sold his assets and gave the money to his children who then went overseas to study. As they become engineers, doctors, biochemists and so on, brains headhunters from other countries made them offers they could not refuse. Who could when the salary would be five times local and the sky's the limit for merit-based personal growth and elevation whereas if they come back, they will fall into the same life cycle as their parents who had nevertheless the pained foresight to send them away?

All those little towns and shanty places could have been more thriving and prosperous if the brain drains did not happen, first into the local cities, and then into the overseas cities. Now they have to depend on the vernacular-trained chinaman and the naturalized bugis to make things happen.

Which comes back to our Malays. Let's say we change his race to Chinese. So we have a brown-skinned chinese indigenous to this land and somewhat behind economically.

Three things are needed for him to get up. Dedication to hard-work and sacrifice, common sense to see and support what's practical and important for success, and a customer/market centricity.

All three are needed because if the real Chinese have succeeded, it was because they had practiced all three seamlessly together. Is there any reason why this dark-skinned 'chinese' can't? After all, they aren't any special qualities. If one proto-Malay can, why not another?

Let's say the first two elements are present and can be triggered immediately. The third element of customer/market centricity is then what needs to be optimized. You can only do that if you believe no man's an island. And that comes about when you drop any barriers towards networking and integrating with others who can then be your customers and market, what more sahabat dan rakan, kemudiannya abang sama adik.

And that will only happen if a government which arrogates itself as your representative starts doing all the right things not to disenfranchise your potential customers and market away until they leave in droves or shun to have anything to do with you, or live their own cloistered lives in some morbid sense of fear that they will be 'found out' for just living honest hardworking self-sacrificing lives.

Right?

The Umno government has ruined the third element even as it has slyly and arrogantly showed it doesn't believe our Malays have the first two elements. It is therefore the worst enemy of our Malays. So why are some still supporting this pretentious party that cheats Felda settlers, and the poor in Sabah and Sarawak?

It’s like Najib saying he’s not doing it because of the elections when he launched the gennovation programme for youths. But didn’t he in the next sentence say, “But as your prime minister,.....”? Why the need to remind them, hmm and huh?

Indeed why are these some of our Malays still supporting the fox that “grieves” over the rabbits of all our Malay families?

Administrative matters:

These i think are important:

one, Pakatan MUST have firm resolution from the EC on the matter of postal votes integrity. Postal votes will be Umno's trojan horse against Pakatan in GE13. The Rakyat Of Malaysia MUST know what happens at all points when postal votes are cast and counted.

two, in the event Umno foxily fixes GE13 during the CNY holiday period, Pakatan MUST have a ready plan to counteract the dilution of pro-Pakatan voters moving out of the cities for their breaks. This includes our Malays as well as the Chinese and others who join the exodus.

If not alert, drink more tea and coffee laced with pharmaton. Add some tongkat ali if necessary. But wake the up!

Anonymous,  16 November 2012 at 10:30  

With 500 billion in national dept.

Every malaysia (rakyat)is in dept(hutang)at RM 18,000.00 per person.

If you have a family of 5 then your dept is RM 90,000.00.

This BN is spending and sucking all the rakyat money into their bank account with cronies like taib/syeb moktar...etc.

All rakyat must vote the BN out or we will be bankrupt.

wongty robert 16 November 2012 at 15:00  

If UMNO/BN decides to privatise prisons before GE13, Malaysians should not be upset or grieve over it. It is just that the foxes are preparing their return to their proper homes!

Suci Dalam Debu 16 November 2012 at 15:56  

Anon 16 Nov 2012 10:30

Please add to your figure the amount of Black money that has left the country in the last 10 yrs or so. It would probably add up to RM50,000 per person. Add that to your RM18,000.

That is the amount that each Malaysian young and old have to shoulder.

Anonymous,  16 November 2012 at 16:43  

Can a flower nurture in a green house survive the rain and shine outside?

Anonymous,  16 November 2012 at 17:10  

The greatest crimes in history started by very good people with the best of intentions.

Anonymous,  16 November 2012 at 21:29  

True, true.

Another way of getting the goodies is through DEB (dasar ekonomi baru to allocate 30% to bumiputera)

Well, that is a good front to enrich the privilege and those in power.

Bulk of the goodies are taken by minority while small percentage to less privilege public in millions

Then, all gov machinery, media and tongue twisting groups will hood wink the public with the so-called good work done

Donplaypuks® 16 November 2012 at 23:38  

Federalism is the biggest culprit worldwide in creating this universal GDP and debt problem. And in aping the USA, UK, PIGS and Europe, Najib has gone down the same path of self-destruction. States no longer have any say or control on reckless and thoughtless Federal spending.

While conventional tells you that governments should not save like individuals, equally it does not preach that one must run trillion dollar budget deficits with more and more borrowings, and lumber our grandchildren with prolonged, endemic recession.

The "trained economist" Ajibkor has gambled badly. My worry is that he may, like Bush, walk away from it all and leave us a legacy of economic waste, propeling us to 3rd world status!


Dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Human race

Sumpitan emas,  17 November 2012 at 00:29  

The problem of the Welfare State to me is that it tends to teach the habit of taking the line of least resistance to even the most hardy individuals, and once in the splendid but narcotic embrace of State sponsorship, the battle to regain the energy, drive and spirit to strike out on one's own is as good as lost: like heroin or cocaine, the battle to kick out the habit, if ever it is possible, is a long and tiresome one, so why try?

I agree with you when you say that the expansion of government started with good intent but disagree that it was corrupted by the same good people who started out with good intentions. On the contrary, it was corrupted by those who came later to the scene. It was more a case of the good people with good intentions taking for granted that what was so natural and fair to them need not be writ in gold for the benefit of the inheritors, and that was probably why they left without putting in place ethical guidelines and benchmarks for effective and fairer outcomes. Looking back, It could even be that the founding fathers never suspected that what seemed so natural and equitable to them could not be seen in the same compassionate manner by those who were already enjoying the good life. My point is: comfort degenerates very quickly to plain greed, initially, and then to obscene lust for unspeakable wealth and power,ultimately. Greed is the mother of the misuse and abuse of power.

Something to put the whole debate on public welfare vis a vis public squander in perspective from two giants of Humanity. The first by Abraham Lincoln:
"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

The second is by Mahatma Gandhi, quoted by Hans Küng in 'A Global Ethic For Global Politics and Economics' (1998)
from his 'The Seven Deadly Sins in Today's World':

Wealth without work,
Enjoyment without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Business without morality,
Science without humanity,
Religion without sacrifice and
Politics without principles.

Politics without principles aka Long on slogans, short on substance: Najib said in July that the civil service needed to deliver on the People First, Performance Now promise to the rakyat. He added that there was still a long way to go for Malaysia to become a developed and high-income economy. He reminded the crowd with deep humility,"That is why I challenge everyone, including myself, to think of new and creative ideas that we can push forward. No sooner was that promise made the AES was implemented - Cronies First, People Last; People Pay, Cronies get paid.

A great Chinese reformer, Liang Qichao, at the turn of the 20th century, once lamented, "In China today only cunning, crooked, vile and ruthless people can flourish."

What do we say about our beloved Malaysia?

Anonymous,  17 November 2012 at 04:15  

Open market started off with noble intentions, but again it has been abused by nobels / feudals / cronies, uber wealthy as they can be.. exclusiveness based on race and religion, the best belong to the nobels, the ikan bilis, the crumbs, half loaf of a whole bakery belong to the common rakyat.. conveniently shifting the blame that poor of any race are lazy .... as what is done in Florida, the super wealthy justify their ends and means.

A Renewed Open market where everyone gets to earn a decent livelihood, fair and equal distribution of business opportunities to those With Talents in the private sector which contribute the bulks of income tax to pay for the public services, jobs with good wages to both the middle income and the low income, and to eradicate poverty in the interior, sururbs, kampong from malaysia a nation rich is resources but grossly mismanaged for decades. Talents should be absorbed and recognised regardless of creed in the public service. And it is certainly " halal " to work hard as waiters in Old Town Kopitiam, KFC, Pizza Huts.

The crux of the matter is they are grateful, learn to take pride in their jobs until they gain enough experiences in learning the rope of diligence and good work etiquette. Some become old job workers, unemployed as they fail their job interviews in these outlets, based on race, why ? Be inclusive instead, that is the strength, or decisively unable to do so ? Things need to change for the better, flaws eliminated.

In the US, the working middle class from their intellects to their farmers, the five million umemployed American people are asking their economists, capitalists and President Obama solid hard questions which no foreseeable answers and remedies, just yet. Too few S & M enterprises, cottage industries to create wealth and employment ?

By we seeing the flaws in the open market policy, eliminating them and making the policy far better to suit, to empower and benefit the 90 percent of our own common rakyat significantly, is necessary.

Malaysian economists must know that some new graduates have double / triple majors / interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, hence, be they or any professionals, commodity traders, even housewives ( voters ) can question our economists' policies, so the standoffish attitude that only economists can tackle ecomony issues is outdated. However, transferring it into engaging with the clients ( the rakyat ) to create beneficial and meaningful, inclusiveness policies for all segments of the rakyat, is necessary. It is forward looking and civil in a democratic country, fast forward 50 years.

Perhaps, in the soonest time, the young elite ones ( definitely need to be booted out as they are out of touch with realities of life ), the old economists and new ones should be shipped out from their flush cushioned seats and comfort zone, on regular working trips in the interior, the kampong and S& M enterprises, the ngo organisations, the halfway homes to have close up working experiences. Then only they will be competent to come up with long term and beneficial policies for the Rakyat !

bumi-non-malay 17 November 2012 at 06:55  

Pakatan should dissolve Selangor Now and call for election...then Penang...then Kelantan...etc....to spread the resources and dwindle the fire power of UMNO until they really call for GE......

Where are all the strategist in Pakatan....Bodoh punya Pakatan.....

Get your small victories and refine for the Mega Battle....

In anyway Malaysia is DOOMED with almost 1 Trillion of foreign debt when the TRUE story is exposed......55 years of $hit hidden is soon to burst out...like it or not!!!

Sumpitan emas,  17 November 2012 at 09:18  

Dato, I just read the news that came from Paradise, via Din Merican's blog, 'Dato Ramli Yusuf given a ceremonial farewell by PDRM'

I salute the current IGP, Tan Sri Ismail Omar, for initiating this healing process in PDRM. My best wishes to you and your men. Fear not the politicians because they come and go. Only when your men, who will always be around, can uphold justice and fair play in the streets can the nation begin to hope that there is a future for everyone - ensuring public security is a powerful fundamental anchor for civil society to thrive. Out of the streets into the halls of justice, the judiciary provides the other fundamental anchor for all to remain civil and civilised.

To Dato Ramli and family, yours is one battle won, and I share your joy, this big moment of the triumph of good over evil. To those who went through the hellish times with you, I pray that you will all always be blessed by God Almighty.

All you good, God-fearing men have a great life.

Anonymous,  17 November 2012 at 09:43  

If one is serious about real and meaningful change, you need to let the country hit rock bottom so that everyone fully understand and feel the pain of bad leadership and gross mismanagement....at that stage, you don't need to tell them to change.

bruno,  17 November 2012 at 22:51  

Obama won re-election for a second and final term as US president.And he won it with less 7 million popular votes than he got in 2008.

Pundits have it that it was going to be tight.And it might be even a few days before the winner is called.But the experts were all proven wrong.By 11pm,the states Mitt Romney has to win,Pennslyvania,Ohio and Florida was called for Obama.It was all over fast and furious,although Florida proved to be a hair thriller afterall.

With the last five or six counties to be called,supposedly blue or Obamaland,the major networks jumped the gun.Florida was finally called for Obama after one week.

In Florida and many of the must win states by Mitt Romney,the Amigos and minorities saw that Mitt Romney gets the goose eggs.

Although Obama was under pressure over the huge national deficit and debt and high unemployment,he had under David Axelrod a team of crafty stragists.

Obama care was a popular healthcare plan for the working class and poor.And as usual the working class and poor overwhelmed the upper class and rich.

Abortion rights.Romney and the Republicans,like the Umnoputras want to force the ladies what to do in their personal lives,have the stick stuck deep into their throats instead.

Immigration rights and green cards for children from illegals bought into the US,when young.It sent the Amigos and minorities throwing Romney and the Republicans to the donkey's(Democrats) feet to be trampled.

The democrats have good generals.Romney had strategists on loan and imported fron Bolehland.That is the reason he got trashed.He used his feet instead of his head.

The PR needed the likes of the Democrats and not the ones from Umno to win Putrajaya.Always fighting among themselves over petty issues and the Umnoputras might just squeezed through and steal the GE right from under their noses.

Sumpitan emas,  18 November 2012 at 08:49  

Walla(10:20:"The genesis of enterprise in the semi-rural towns was the sole businessman with a yearning to improve the lot of his family but with little education and connection. So he started young, and used his hands in manual work. Then he used his brain and eyes and saved enough through years of painful sacrifice to buy a small asset."

I fully agree with you as I see this repeated over and over again throughout Malaysia in the early years - friends confirm this. I should like to add, and perhaps you may not agree with me, however, that those who succeeded most in the sense that their success went beyond the third and even fourth generation, were those who in that painful progression from hand to head, went just one heart beat further, to the Heart. Nothing succeeds like the successful man who gave space for his heart to provide that necessary leavening of compassion and humanity, essentially, all that that will define him as a man, and in Gandhi's words, a man of character. So when Daniel Coleman introduced the E.Q. index to the world in 1995, he merely confirmed that ultimate success always go to those who have a heart in every sense of the word - they 'think' with their heart.

Sure a good brain helps a person get off to a good start, but that's the result of biology not by any stretch of imagination the product of a personal refulgent, and over indulgent mind. In short, a gift of nature. Only when that gift is allowed to develop together with the basic enabling agent, the hand, to the degree that 'nature' is slowly displaced by 'nurture' through the heart, that the definition of character will be decided: the more the head is used, from nature, and the less the heart is used, from nurture, I suggest, the less the character.

An Einstein is from nature, but an Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi is from nurture.

Hand to Head to Heart, and we have a happy progressive country. Hand to Head and more Head, and we have the crowd of smiling millionaires and forked-tongued politicians.

Long live the Head, down with the Heart, so says BN.

walla 18 November 2012 at 09:12  

Brilliant comments, Sumpitan emas!

Please write some more!

Sumpitan emas,  18 November 2012 at 16:02  

Thanks Walla. I thrive on generous doses of heart-warming praises to make up for a head that could never differentiate, for a long time, between 'truth' from the head and 'truth' from the heart. For example, the one says that a piece of paper can represent real ownership of a part of a much larger forest, and the other says forget about the paper, continue to stay in that small forest, sell its produce to whomsoever one wishes, or even the whole forest and then move out, like it has always been. In one, one can't look at the transactions, in the other, one gets solid cash. Which is which?

I have always liked to refer this development chain, Hand to Head to Heart, as the 3-H principles of Living a Decent Life. This is not really original because developmental child psychology had earlier described the learning ladder as starting with Motor Skills and moving one level up to Cognitive Skills and finally, Affective Skills. Later educational pyschologists saw this learning ladder as S.K.A: Skills, Knowledge and Attitude, i.e. skills through the hand, knowledge through the head, and attitude through the heart.

My thesis is, our schools' system has always emphasised the hand and the head and what little our students receive on using the heart come exclusively from the weekly 'religious' classes, if at all, the 'secular' instructors playing no role whatsoever. And who is to blame them when every teacher in Malaysia will tell whoever cares to listen to them that the authorities build into the system an unwieldy ambitious curriculum to weed out 90% of the final cohort before tertiary education. Can any teacher in Malaysia claim that he or she has completed the syllabus by year's end? Only delusionary self-congratulatory senior Ministry planners in Kuala Lumpur believe so. So it should not surprise anyone that while we may have thousands of brilliant engineers, doctors, lawyers, and of course brilliant politicians, how many can count as a man of character, who knows where the boundary line for unacceptable behaviour ends, who knows how much is too much for himself and his family.

The late Li Kwoh-Ting, Cambridge-educated physicist, the man who played the defining role in re-shaping the economic landscape of Taiwan, in the early 70s, to what it is today advocated his "6th Ethic" movement with its emphasis that a new society needs a new spirit of morality and order. He asked a simple question: How can I carry on the selfless, broadminded spirit of the previous generation to help create a more hopeful future?

That's one good head driven to ask a very pertinent question because the heart posed the initial question, albeit silently, on spirit, morality and order.

So if we are head-strong enough to ignore that escapade(s) to seedy hideouts in Batu Pahat, for example, cannot be sanctioned by virtue of the fact that occupancy of a public space requires taxpayers's money, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the same taxpayers are heading to the polls to teach a vital lesson to the person who has one head too many, and no heart.

I have to stop my head from spinning out of control, now, by imploring those who march into Putrajaya next to have a heart so that there is a more hopeful future for everyone.

I write all this with a heavy heart.

Anonymous,  18 November 2012 at 17:26  

Florida proved to be a hair thriller afterall as the republican governor purportedly took four days to count the votes and tally the abseentee becuase they didn't know how to count in thousand with the obvious intention which we must be aware Bolehland will follow suit !!!

walla 18 November 2012 at 17:58  

Sumpitan emas,

It's good to feel for others as part of the whole called society. What life teaches us is that indeed we reap what we sow even if the results may take some time to reach us. For instance, if we do something bad, the result may instead be bad on someone else we care about.

This serves to magnify the cause-effect lesson more than if it is directly served on the actual doer who has deceived his own mind that he can get away with it only to find later the bill has arrived at the doorstep when and where he least expects it.

What applies to individuals also applies to their groupings such as communities, societies, teams, governments and organizations. If the peoples in such groupings make it a point to remain acutely aware that one is interconnected to others all the time, then the cause-effect chain can be used as a tool to lift more up according to creative rather than destructive precepts.

Remember what the poet Tao Yuan Ming had told his daughter as he got on his horse. He asked her to treat their maid well for the maid 'is also someone's daughter'....this generic extension of relationships forms the bedrock of a worthy societal norm.

At the end of the day, we all have to work and live with one another and each good thing done despite the appearance of loss by not taking the easier course to do something else that is patently bad will result in increasing the goodwill and humanity that can provide a better light for the next generations.

Material gains and losses have a peculiar relativistic quality in them. We may find that as we accumulate more, our ability to enjoy them becomes marginally less whereas if we stay focused on being thankful for life per se, then we can appreciate by seeing how small things we least expect get nudged onto our path at just the time to reveal some deeper and more poignant order in how events change.

As for the education system, i am not hopeful there will be any real improvements where it matters. A good system will spark curiosity. I see none. It will push for excellence. I see self-deception by way of lowering passing marks and creating illusions that are easily shattered in the real world of benchmarks, employment, work and differentiation. A good system will also generate a life-long love for learning and finding things out with an intellectual passion on the one hand, and a desire to transmute knowledge to application on the other. I see none of that happening. A good system will build tomorrow's leaders possessed of critical thinking skills and fearless to walk their thoughts. How many are there today?

But you and others like you must carry on even and especially if perplexed, for it is the perplexity that shows evidence of an inner effort to rationalize and integrate a path out of contending forces in a world made chaotic by transient personal agenda's and parochial mindsets.

After all, it is because people had stopped caring about the way things have moved that is the cause of all that has happened to-date so that the inner effort to catalyze positive changes will be what is needed the most to stop the damage, reverse the trend and take us all home to where we all know we must be - better people living more examined lives in a more enlightened society of a greater nation.



Sumpitan emas,  19 November 2012 at 23:56  

Walla, thanks for your highly illuminating comments. Where I come from the expression is 'hukum alam' - the law of nature will prevail. Yes, even if we have to sit it out perplexed by a million machinations from men and monsters, we must carry on. To do less is to allow the powers that be to continue to pull all of us downhill at a faster pace. It amazes so many of us with access to alternative sources of news that there are individuals in the government who still think they can seduce some of our top talents to return home. It is as condescending as it is blatantly hypocritical and self-serving . The ‘I am a Malay first’ racist now wants patriotic Malaysians to come home. Either he has a bad memory or he thinks all Malaysians overseas are fools. No individuals leave his or her homeland on a whim. All the DPM need do to find out what basically motivates a person to leave home is to ask his good friend Rais Yatim to ask his maid why she left Indonesia for Malaysia. Is it for money and financial security, or, is it for companionship? For any individual, more so a qualified professional, who is usefully employed overseas, nothing that has happened over the last 25 years in this country can ever justify his return unless family circumstances forces the issue.

So as we wait, the anxiety increases by the day as events unfold in front of us, pious pledges from top UMNO men notwithstanding. The recent vindication of lawyer Rosli Dahlan and former Commercial Crimes Investigation chief Dato Ramli Yusof within a space of three months is cause for a small celebration by law-abiding citizens. But, this by no means is reason for us to relax our guard and certainly no excuse to allow the BN government to continue holding the high moral ground on law and order, which in the first place it is not entitled to because of the countless number of occasions when the laws were deliberately twisted, often times blatantly broken to allow BN to perpetuate its rule.

As if one exposé after another of financial wrongdoings in recent years weren’t enough to add millstones round BN’s neck, we now have an ex-Inspector General of Police and the current Attorney-General adding more weight to the already heavy neck. Does the P.M. still seriously believe he can charge into the next G.E. expecting unquestioned loyalty from a demoralised citizenry and come out still smelling good and strong if he cannot resolve in a clear, transparent and impartial manner the scandal of all scandals related to law and order? I refer to the charges levelled against these two men of fabricating evidence in a number of high profile cases by yet another ex-senior police officer, one time Head of Criminal Investigations Department Kuala Lumpur, Dato’ Mat Zain Ibrahim. Part of the unsavoury details are contained in a 20-page A-4 size open letter to Datin Kalsom Taib, wife of Dato Shafee Yahya, one time Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau(now the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission), in response to certain comments found in the book by Datin Kalsom Taib. In a direct challenge to the two men, ex-Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, lawyer and ex-UMNO member, Zainal Abidin Ahmad has written the recently published ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah?’, read ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail Fibber, Con-man, Criminal?’.

We are all waiting for the response from the two men as well as from the P.M. to help us decide which way to vote.

The P.M. can accept this admonition by Confucius "A man’s time has passed if he is despised at forty", or, the advice by a boy wrangler to the Yellow Emperor 3000 years ago,"Ruling the country is not difficult, it is just like herding horses. If a horse gives you trouble, take it out of the herd." How taking out of the herd is done, today, is not my area of expertise.

walla 20 November 2012 at 08:45  

Sumpitan emas,

The rakyat have awakened and will not close their eyes and ears again.

The Umno government has been exposed and will not be trusted again.

No country can operate with success for long if its citizens don't trust its government.

Whether Barisan wins or not, their politicians will make more hay as sun sets, leaving those who support or oppose them to suffer into the long and dreary future the consequences of their misdeeds, suppression and theft.

Spin, propaganda, pretense, denials and outright lies cannot hide reality. They only corrupt minds. And that is the greatest sin that a bad government propped by selfish politics can commit onto the citizens of a country.

If after half a century of national consciousness we still choose to remain immature and shallow as peoples of this land, what hope will the future hold for the youngsters who will be bequeathed situations that will overwhelm them in an unsentimental world where others have already raced ahead?

All the exposes reflect what is wrong deep in the way this country has been governed into the ground. More bad things will be done because once they find out that their days are numbered, they will be more emboldened to scoop bigger piles for themselves.

You cannot have 2 percent lie and cheat on 98 percent and expect things won't change.

Just kick them out. This Najib is just a man propped up by spin.

As for those who disagree while reading in, their defensiveness against reality, facts and rationale denotes the trait of the alley cat -nice to me, i nice to you; disagreeable to my interests, i oppose you completely. Where's the integrity to think of others and the country first? Umno has officiated 'me-ism' to the hilt, cloaked in hypocritical niceties.

No?



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