Why we write.
My friends and I who continuously write about the ills and problems of UMNO and also on society are often accused as armchair critics. Actions speak louder than words. We could have more credibility if instead of sitting down, we get up and actually do something. Like leaving UMNO and joining opposition parties. So on and so forth.
So why do we write and write articles? I was re reading Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom and found myself in agreement on the reasons why he and his friends write. Of course what he wrote are of tremendously weightier subject that ours.
He gave 2 reasons.
First. To provide subject matter for bull sessions or in Malaysian parlance- talk cock sessions. You talk over these issues over kopi tiam ( halal of course), over Starbucks Coffee, nasi alemak, the tarik sessions. In the end only you yourself can persuade yourself to believe. So you go over the subject matter over and over again, getting fresh and differing inputs, you mull them over. After a long time you turn your preferences into convictions. It is conviction that makes for a firmer decision.
Secondly as Friedman says, is to give ourselves open ended options until circumstances make change necessary. People don't understand that change is not easily taken. There is tremendous inertia on all parties to change what they perceived as comfortable arrangements already. Why re-invent the wheel they asked? We are fully ware that UMNO is like a behemoth. It talks about wanting to change but the huge body isn't moving.
What can effect change will be a crisis. A crisis produces real change. How is this related to the 'work' we do- if that can be called work at all?- continuously criticizing, exposing weaknesses an offering ideas? Because when a crisis takes place, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. So what we are doing is making ideas lying around.
So to quote Milton Friedman- that is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.
I believed that such a crisis is looming. The present leadership of this country will find itself almost infirmed and incapacitated to solve the country's woes. The economy is no longer manageable given the stock and quality of leadership, social tensions escalate, political arrangements break up, so on so forth. Its impossible to imagine a change in government what more of leadership, but the politically impossible may become politically inevitable.
Then we look at the ideas and the people writing about them. we look for alternatives.
30 comments:
Creative destruction Dato'! I have always advocated that policy
Datuk, I couldn't resist posting Walla's comment this morning. Pls extend to him my gratitude.
And that is why most Malaysian write too. We all have the same aim but with different conviction and different map/construction plan to follow. For you, the way is to revamp "a precinct" so to speak but to many of us, that just won't do. We believe the necessity of revamping the whole of PUTRAJAYA.
Good day Sir.
P.s - I wonder now that we have revealed ourselves to be advocates of creative destruction, are we going to be labeled as "pengganas, derhaka, sesat and my favorite Pengkhianat Bangsa"?
Dato'
With what is going on, it is about time to change the government or at least change the people.
Many out there are still hopeful that the nation can be again on the right track with the correct leaders leading the way- surely there is a better guy out there than the current one.
Dato',
Airing ideas and view-points are fine and commendable if one is happy being in his station as just an ordinary member of a party or in just being plain joe-public.
But a leader has to step-up to the plate. He has to be willing to put himself and his beliefs on the line.
He has to say this is what I stand for and the party is either with me and supports me or I step off as the party then no longer follows what I believe in.
There is nobody in UMNO brave enough to stand his ground.
Ibrahim Ali would not have formed Perkasa if he were in UMNO. Offer him a seat in UMNO and chances are he will disavow Perkasa.
Zaid Ibrahim to his credit gave up a cabinet post. He stood his ground.
Ku Li did not take that last step. He tried to play the UMNO game and lost. His resignation preempted his sacking from the cabinet.
Anwar simillarly started on his crusade only after being sacked. If he was still in UMNO he would still be singing the UMNO tune.
To Anwar's credit his new tune resonates with the public and the public favours him for it.
UMNO unfortunately knows no new tune. KU Li's attempt at singing a new tune is drowned out by the other band members.
He has to step-out if he firmly believes that his tune needs not just to be heard by those standing close to him, but to be played out loud so that the rakyat can enjoy it.
In music you have evergreens like Louis Armstrong's Wonderfull World that stand the test of time. You also have minor hits that are fancied for a couple of weeks then just disappear. You also have the Lambadas which for a few months can be heard everywhere but after a year or so just gets on everyone's nerves when played.
Well Anwar's tune of justice, equality and transparency is an evergreen.
Perkasa's tune is already on its way out.
UMNO unfortunately is still playing the Lambada. It irritates everyone but the band members who know no other song to play.
If they can't master a new song (and their skill sets are such that that is a big if), and I hope they don't pick Perkasa's tune to master instead, the audience - in this case the rakyat - will turn a deaf ear come the next GE.
Selamat Berpuasa.
Yeah people like you and Wenger got nothing better to do but just became armchair critics!
I wonder what Crisis is that - looming you say?
1.PKFZ - Thanks MCA!
2.Engine Airforce stolen - Zahid still in prime & pride himself with more artillery that may dive or may not shoot up.
3. PM Najib - "Lu tolong wa, wa tolong Lu" kawasan ini ada banjir bukan ...?
4. Anwar & his anwaristas antics
5. Ezam Mat Kotak - the infamous hero - "Kak Wan patut Bertobat, nanti saya tak takut pon kena saman sebab saya Senator, law is in my hand"
6. Ling Leong Sik - Charge in Court!
Blah, Blah, Blah and the list is endless.
Sime Darby, Felda, etc !!!
Crisis apa Dato Sak?
Kurma Israel in our Carrefour markets and Masjid India Streets!?
- Ikan Tongkol -
Hopefully the destruction, creative or otherwise, is only limited to UMNO.
-MAKORANG-
Sak, I still say that UMNO will not change. Not with the current crop of below par leaders especially the play safe and no balls Najib as the head. You can continue day dreaming. Yes, perhaps it is better to bring back Tengku Razaleigh.
The system of patronage practice by UMNO (which was started by mamak Mahathir when he almost lost to Tengku Razaleigh) will not change simply because it is already deep rooted and the leaders' suvival depends on the system.
Would they change it if their survival is at stake? Not in a million years.
Their personal interest is above the nation's interest. Almost all its top leaders are rich even those who FLCE. Can they all justify how they get their wealth other than not being corrupt through the abuse of power? Is this how we train the Malays? Talk is cheap.
The leaders are not even willing to allow all its members to vote. What is the point of being a member if you cannot vote to choose your leader? A member who cannot vote is just like a citizen who are not allowed to vote in the GE. Is it not ridiculous?
If you want to change UMNO, vote them out. That will put some senses back in their brains. Otherwise they will all remain an arrogant lot and treat the Melayus that voted for them as pariah Malays....throwing crumbs to them while they looted the nation dry.
Satu untuk engkau, satu untuk aku, dua untuk engkau dua untuk aku, juta2 untuk engkau juta2 untuk aku...sounds familiar P. Ramlee movie? Like you once said "akulah penyamun dalam negeri"...and I think this aptly apply to UMNO(B) now.
How to trust and respect UMNO???? Trust and respect must be earned. UMNO is not doing anything to earn that trust and respect except to come out with empty slogans after empty slogans. We need action/result not slogans.
Please don't think that all those Malays that do not support UMNO are Anwar or Pas supporters. Many Malays rejected UMNO as the party has deteriorated and become too corrupt and had little interest of the nation at heart. They only care for only their own self interest. UMNO leaders has turned their followers into a "malas" and "manja" lot. If things does not change, don't be surprised that many sons and daughters of the Malays will be woking as maids and labourers in foreign lands. Then we can ask who is Tuan?
Just write away Sak, whatever and whenever you feel like it.
If your readers dont like it, so be it.
If they like it,well and good.
You have got a ready reader in me and your other loyalists. Wow sounds like you have a fiefdom.
I tto write Letters to the Editors and its printed as it is without editing.
So who says, MSM are heavy censors. You must know what they want.
But those that I know will not be printable, I vent my thoughts to your blogs and two others.
I like your blog because you allow our 'masterpiece' to go through without censorship.
There are some blogs which talk so much about freedom of speech of PKR but press the delete button when it did not suit their ears.
There are also PKR lovers here who are very quick to slam us when we are not in agreement.
Everyone must have a voice to be heard.
Of course some call you arm chair critic. So what.
What we write are for posterity. If one day, what is wtitten comes true, you can turn around and say: "I told you so."
At least we write and not just waste saliva by debating at coffee-shops.
Yah Uncle Zorro, of course you will print Walla's article because he slams UMNO.
You are one person who never gives my comments the light of day.
You only allow racists comments and people who are your lickers in your small forum.
If you give space to a person of differing views to comment, it's to denigrate that person. Then you will have a chorus of cheer-leaders.
You are the so-called liberal and freedom-lover and fair Malaysian you always touted. Oh puleeze.
Your blog always find a way to insult Malays and Muslims or make fun of us.
What else can i say. 100% agreed with this anonynous 12.00. Just another big nail to their big head. Be it KULI or datuk SAK they're the type that dont have guts to walk the talk. For UMNO cybertrooper, they're here just to rebute everything that's meant to be good advice to reform the ill-fated UMNO.
Prior to 308, peoples of Penang had been talking about what they didn't like about the BN CM this and the BN CM that he's too soft behaving like an eunuch to UMNO!
Umno asked him to sit, he will sit! Umno goons trampled on his portrait in front of the then sleepy PM, he would also say - 'Never mind, they'd been only emotional'!
So Penangites' furore grew as times went by, as they had seen enough antics which included kris brandishing, spewed junk language of 'pendatang' in the august Parliament House, all the making people laughed like hell monkey tricks of Umno brand etc.....
Until 308, they saw the opportunity to teach Umno and goons and their obedient stooges a life time experience on how a piece of voting slip could mean to the unwanted pollies of the day!
All boiled down to the mistakes of umno and the BN stooges were only scapegoats by too much subservient to their umno masters at the sacrifice of people's dignity and rights, and prides of course!
That's the only reason BN was down and that's the lesson those imbeciles are still not learning yet! They still believe that by spinning with wholesome of political histrionics, mud- slinging with each others would be the best entertainment they could have cheaply entertained their voters bosses! That's seriously wrong when they are treating peoples foolish they themselves ended up like clowns!
The new CM LGE must also learn from the cocky Penangites, me too included, that he should not treat us nincompoops he thought he could have just played some tricks, peoples in the Island will give them their whole soul plus virginity.
He must be aware, the same water that could float him, can also sink him if he's proven himself another Umno style the old fashion polly of the same flip-flop in policies - Cakap tak serupa pikin..!
Like what's happening these two days, a kopitium operator at Komtar nearly killed himself with kerosene due to suppression and instead of solving the people's plights, the CM's aide allowed his goons behaving like mongrels to unleash and bark at the poor victims saying that they are the pawn downs of the oppositional Party!
Accusation has it that they are all being engaged by the oppositional Parties to take on DAP and whatnot!
This we Penangites must remind, we know this is a traditional outdated gimmick of political persecution which DAP was the vanguard to protest against Umno and seemed they are emulating!
We as Penangites are watching very closely on how the young and charismatic CM is going to bring up Penang from the faltering FDI and the sluggish economy in lieu of his non-stop political repertoires and histrionics we are beginning to get fed-up!
Likewise, Umno/BN is under tight scrutiny and the appraisal will reveal itself come next GE #13!
Dato'
Looking at the present political scenario, change of the government is not only possible but inevitable.
It may not be in the next GE but I strongly believe I'll live to witness it.
God bless Malaysia !
Dato'
You said:
"I believed that such a crisis is looming. The present leadership of this country will find itself almost infirmed and incapacitated to solve the country's woes."
Your doomsday prediction is not shared by most Ardent UMNO supporters....
Still, most of us are not convinced that joining or staying in UMNO will solve the problem.
Neither are we convinced that your tirades against your so called "Scumbags" in UMNO will come to anything!! Your so called "Scumbags" will make sure that you and others in your league will be sidelined in the next elections....
Nevertheless, most of us will try to put things right through the ballot box.
Joe Black
From the book The Shafee Yahaya Story :
"I remember the old brown curtains at the official residence of the Prime Minister...Azizan had ask Razak to change them as there was a budget for it, but Razak did not want to. He said the old ones were still in good condition. Razak's reply was apt, and that is...he did not want to spend the rakyat's money unnecessarily" The simple furnishings at Sri Taman reflected Tun Razak's thrift and respect for public funds." (p.181)
"So that morning, Tun Razak called me and said "I'm going to Kelantan and Rahah wants to go too but I cannot take her because the government won't pay for this." I said to him "Tun, this is the NOC, and I am the controlling officer. I have the right to approve and you are the number one man. You take her, I'll pay for it and no one will query it. You are the director of operations'. He said "No,no,no people will talk, people will talk. Rahman, I don't want people to talk about this" (p.182)
Now that is what we call accountability and intergrity. Now compare Tun Razak with his son Najib and and the whole bunch of self serving UMNO ministers and leaders. Can you spot the difference? I guess it is not a hard thing to do.
Dato',
I have no problem reading constructive articles that tickle the mind and become a genesis of an idea as to the future we Malaysian share together.
I have also grown to accept that everyone has their point of view. Unfortunately, there are many commentators that contribute nothing to the discussion but just spew of racism and prejudices.
This afternoon Fly FM over the radio answered why we write.
In broadcasting a helpful Ramadhan message, our young DJs said it is to 'do the right thing'.
Why we write is so that people who can do things will do the right things and do things right.
Our Malays must see this clearly. Things have been done wrong, and done wrong for a long time. Not just to them but also to others as well and to our country too until the future has become dire.
How else can one explain how we can come to this situation when we were once the toast of the commonwealth, a model of progress, the light of Asia?
How else can one explain why today we are hand-wringing how to crawl out of our middle-income trap, shake off our resource curse, wind up the springs of our moribund economy that has only been propped up by subsidies we can no longer afford because all the money's gone, the hardware's falling to pieces, the software's out of date and the staff are shipping out?
We started as a tribe. Under Umno it became a club. Over the years that morphed into a syndicate. It rigs results, bullies people, siphons their money, and then comes back to say it deserves another chance.
It's like Umno organizing a banquet. It invites everyone but the tables are arranged to separate some from the general members and the general members from others until even the menu's and cutlery are all different.
The feudalism of colonial Malaya was continued but under new masters who adopted the old trick of divide-and-rule by selling imaginary threats until our society fractured down the centre, creating rifts, brewing tensions and building mistrust. All for what? Maybe one should instead ask - all for who?
To the welcoming's by kompang, we have added the hand-kissing's. To the banners proclaiming names and titles as long as the cloth used to make the banners, we have reinforced the feel-good messages with mainstream reports that must surely have caused their authors to search their souls for the last drop of intellectual integrity when they were told to write it like that.
And when the processions leave, ferried in sheer comfort by the latest limousines with serious sunglassed men in tow, the rakyat are left in the dust to get back to the grind of their own realities, satiated for the day with fare indirectly paid by them.
You know all this must be true, otherwise how to explain why Umno has to constantly exhort its own leaders to 'go down and meet the people'? How can one go down unless one is already up? And why should one be up if one is servant to the rakyat, not master of their condition?
You don't get this distorted situation with Pakatan so why should the rakyat expect to get it, year after year, from Barisan?
Political parties are just vehicles and names. Who run them and how they are run to serve the rakyat are all that matter.
But Umno is not just a syndicate. It has become a protectorate. Brawns protect its interest. If muscle doesn't work, perhaps a bullet in an envelope can be offered.
2/2
Furthermore, all that can be easily explained away by brains. There are still some left in the ziggurats of the party. They have nice jobs. They selectively use their magnifying glasses. If they don't like what you have written, they take 'em out to examine the barks. See, they say in their sonorous, somnambulistic and supercilious tone, you said there are four defects on the tree; i see only two and a half. Meanwhile the entire forest rots down to its roots.
Why do people write? They write so that the rakyat will know.
Know about strange things that happen in this country. Like how an ACA officer was ticked off for doing his job - just asking someone to explain how come there was so much cash in his drawer and that guy was the one operating the approvals of toll concession agreements and those agreements were given to specials.
So today, many years later, the rakyat still have to pay tolls. Perhaps the rakyat are thought to be too stupid to ask how come they still have to pay tolls when the brains of Umno have already explained how that one hundred billion US dollar blown was used for infrastructure. That's a lot of tolled roads, one imagines.
Why don't the brains of Umno explain how come that mat salleh was so brave to cite an example in a public forum whereby he said a USD30 million sales offer became USD300 million in price through a middle layer? If we can't even build a stadium or flyover properly, what value-add did we do to explode the price by so much? And if the purchase was made, who paid in the end? You who are about to break fast on a diet of ikan bili’s and sambal, minus the garlic.
That's why we write. To ask questions. So that people think. And perhaps, if conscience can still be their middle names, do the right things.
So that when right things are done, we won't have to see old folks sitting forlornly at shopping malls, looking worried how they are going to survive without being a burden to their children who can finally earn higher incomes because the economy has grown through clean and efficient governance, finally banishing away the revelation that in the last ten years, our wage trend had only grown 2.6%.
Is that a possible reason why Umno doesn't want our local uni-students to get political? Because when they graduate and start work, if there is any, they will find their starting pay at RM1.8-2K or so, when that was the starting offers rebuffed by junior secretaries thirty years ago, at prevailing exchange rate then?
Meanwhile we see our youngsters falling off the edge of society, frustrated that they cannot get proper jobs, turning to drugs for escape. A million at the last count? While that painful fact stands unchanged for years before us, just a short access road to a certain place on a hill costs RM150 million by direct offer. How many dear young lives could have been changed, saved, rehabilitated with that kind of money? How many?!
In this country, it seems that the economic term 'opportunity cost' is not cost of benefits foregone. It is opportunity to cronies at the cost of the rakyat.
How did we come to this stage? That's why we write.
This post, for Zorro.
Sorry, feeling weak, so stop here.
You want to stand on a moral high ground, yet want to associate with the most corrupted party (UMNO) on the face of the earth.
Penangite
Fair comment. Bravo.
Lately DAP Crown Prince Guan Eng is in another baptism of fire in Penang.
He's now finding it tough to rule, easy to be in the opposition.
From the SDO to the squatters problem including Tanjung Tokong settlement and the razing down of Malay small business stalls, he's really not handling it well.
His PR is fenititley wanting.
With thatt Komtar suicide man, he send flowers instead of the compensation the guy wants. Haha.
He's also facing problems with disallowing Malay petty traders to do business at KOMTAR.
Then there were the issue of the man rapping him on the shoulder. Some say the man even slapped him.
Wow such bravado.
Now it's a police case.
If he's not careful, GE's tenure as CM is gonna be a short-term one.
And you can see MCA and Gerakan are now swaggering with GE's mistake in the Pearl of the Orient.
OH MY.
Dato', why u write, why i write? simple ma, words are mightier than sword.
Move over PAS and UMNO, PERKASA rules OK.
A proud member of PERKASA who is anti malay liberals.
I admire your guts and loyalty to your beliefs and party. It is destined that UMNO will fall the coming election or the next one. All signs point to this looming eventuality.
Although the top knows the need to change but the change will not gain momentum given the diverse opinions and different thinking to effect change. Some call for moderation, others call for extremism and another group wants the status quo to remain. The inability of PM to command allegiances from his party has led to not wholesome effort to render change. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Given this situation , the goverment will continue their usual way until it is emaciated and unable to prop itself.If our oil stops flowing and the price of commodities drop drastically, the end arrives.
If your party fall, many will leave, henceI support your move to stay so that good people remain to rebuild your party afresh and bring back its original struggle and ideology. We need credible people to be in the opposition and to wrestle power back if the other side do not perform.
Dato Sak,
In general from few commentators, people want to be convince that UMNO can transform itself and quickly. UMNO has to accept that those who demand changes are not necessary from within UMNO only but also from outside the party which many are pinning hope that it will go back to the principle of protecting the rights of the Malay populace but fair to others and not an exclusive club for the few to strive for their personal benefits as what it is today.
Failure to transform, the voters will force upon UMNO to transform via ballot box and change must happen drastically if they want UMNO to remain relevant. UMNO must also accept the "inbreeding " of leadership within UMNO is part of the present problem.
For those who are using PR as a pretext for better government (presumedly PR win the next election) but have ulterior motive, a message to them that their true color will be expose and they will be severely punish worst than UMNO. For sure it will not be walk on the cake for PR.
Based on some other blog postings, the bashing on UMNO from those who call for change they are equally hypocrite, full of racist remarks that are masked in varieties of ways and methods, and have shallow understanding about the this country history.
Dato Sak, I pray god grant you the strength to carry strong message to the present UMNO leadership.
Salam Perjuangan,
TAHNIAH, kerana perjuangan kita dalam menegakkan kebenaran mengenai kepincangan Pakatan Pembangkang pimpinan Anwar Al Juburi mendapat maklum balas positif dari kalangan pengunjung. Kami juga begitu teruja membaca artikel2 yang disampaikan di dalam blog anda.
Untuk pengetahuan saudara, blog kami yang dahulunya diberi nama UNIT MEDIA WANGSA MAJU telah dibubarkan dan kini telah melakukan beberapa penjenamaan semula. Kami telah membuat keputusan untuk menukar blog kami kepada GELOMBANG WANGSA MAJU.
Nama GELOMBANG WANGSA MAJU ditubuhkan atas permintaan beberapa pengunjung setia yang mahu blog kami dikekalkan di samping semangat perjuangan kami untuk meneruskan agenda menidakkan Anwar Al Juburi serta barisan keparat beliau.
GELOMBANG WANGSA MAJU akan menjadi lebih kritis dan terus mengkritik pihak pembangkang secara konsisten. Pihak pemerintah juga tidak akan terkecuali dari kritikan dan teguran blog ini. Tidak ada satu pun parti politik yang akan terlepas pandang.
Wadah perjuangan blog ini akan menjadi lebih universal dan bebas sekalipun masih tertumpu kepada usaha menyampaikan mesej pada isu isu nasional dan khususnya isu isu tempatan berkisar Parlimen Wangsa Maju.
KAMI juga TIDAK LAGI TERIKAT DALAM MANA2 PARTI POLITIK sebaliknya bebas menumpukkan isu2 yang dirasakan wajar ditegur dan dikritik.
Oleh itu, Kami berharap agar anda dapat MENUKAR NAMA BLOG KAMI DARI UNIT MEDIA WANGSA MAJU kepada GELOMBANG WANGSA MAJU di dalam list blog anda agar tidak berlaku sebarang kekeliruan dari pihak anda mahupun sahabat2 kita yang lain..
SEKIAN,
UMNO Didahulukan...
BN Diutamakan...
Quiet Despair...
I think your are desperately Despair lah.
Every post you put up I notice it is all rubbish.
One think I notice and suspect you are an ardent Utusan reader and does not read Malaysiakini or Malaysia today Or even Malaysian Insider. Otherwise you should have been better informed rather than spewing stupid shit here.
LGE is going stronger by the day! Even the Malays in Penang loved him not those UMNO putras with you along , everyday creating trouble.
Komtar case you still dare to post here that he is responsible and not allowing Malay traders to sell in Komtar. ARE they doing so NOW? Well explanations had been given , you no pay rent you no use place period! You think being Malays you dont have to pay aH!!! The guy collected the rent from the trader and did not pay lead the demo! Oh gosh. What kind of people are these!
You dont see Utusan retracting the actual reasons and since you still spew stupid posting , it shows you read ONLY UTUSAN... (wonder which sane people do that anymore)
One stupid man wanting to commit suicide for stupid reasons you blame LGE, Everything you blame him. In fact as far as I am concern, if he died for stupid reason who cares.
You should start to answer what Walla highlighted but until now you cannot. Yet I really wonder what kind of people who still keep in denial mode all these wastages and corruptions and still knowing it still supporting it!
These guys gave you scholarships during your schools days yes, and you are greatful. You get the crumbs others get the prize. For your info your scholarships money partly came from the Ah Chong and Mutu too who pay their taxes not from UMNO and from your past posting you oppose anything NON Malays benefiting.
You have the gall to say if LGE is not careful , his tenure would be a short one! Gosh how stupid that can be. You mean we get back Koh Tzu Koon again ? So you guys can tear down his posters and step on him and yet he apologised?
You think I want this kind of Chinese to represent me? You are nuts.
LGE is the best thing to happen to Malaysia (not just Penang) because he is the icon of how a state or country SHOULD BE RUN. It should show to all the others MBs/CMs/PMs how to run a country.
No today, this kind of Chinese is history just like the MCA Chua is going history.
It is so embarasing to see these kind of fellas talk publicly and lately even challenged DAP about the Dinar as though DAP has anything to do with it. In fact I wish to buy too if it is available in KL! Better than keeping ringgit in the back getting RM2-00 for thousands of dollars deposit.
Gold appreciates now with China supporting it.
We Chinese cannot be very wrong...
Dato'
Just to share this...
Ill Fares the Land - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/10-3
"...The wider the spread between the wealthy few and the impoverished many, the worse the social problems: a statement that appears to be true for rich and poor countries alike. What matters is not how affluent a country is but how unequal it is.
Thus Sweden and Finland, two of the world's wealthiest countries by per capita income or GDP, have a very narrow gap separating their richest from their poorest citizens-and they consistently lead the world in indices of measurable well-being.
Conversely, the United States, despite its huge aggregate wealth, always comes low on such measures.
We spend vast sums on health care, but life expectancy in the US remains below Bosnia and just above Albania. (See Figure 6.)
Inequality is corrosive. It rots societies from within. The impact of material differences takes a while to show up: but in due course competition for status and goods increases; people feel a growing sense of superiority (or inferiority) based on their possessions; prejudice toward those on the lower rungs of the social ladder hardens; crime spikes and the pathologies of social disadvantage become ever more marked.
The legacy of unregulated wealth creation is bitter indeed.[1]
As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate this would have been ridiculed: not only by capitalism's traditional critics but also by many of its staunchest defenders. Relative indifference to wealth for its own sake was widespread in the postwar decades.
In a survey of English schoolboys taken in 1949, it was discovered that the more intelligent the boy the more likely he was to choose an interesting career at a reasonable wage over a job that would merely pay well.[2]
Today's schoolchildren and college students can imagine little else but the search for a lucrative job.
How should we begin to make amends for raising a generation obsessed with the pursuit of material wealth and indifferent to so much else? Perhaps we might start by reminding ourselves and our children that it wasn't always thus.
Thinking "economistically," as we have done now for thirty years, is not intrinsic to humans. There was a time when we ordered our lives differently." Unquote.
You be the judge.
Cheers.
Dato',
We are all appreciative, grateful & "cherished" the era of "UMNO/Perikatan ASAL" under our Bapak Merdeka Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra and his 1st Cabinet of Men of Honour, Calibre, Distinction & Dedication & all the unsung Heroes...who had struggled to achieve our Nation's Independence in 1957 from the British Colonial "Divide & Rule".
Since 1969, the UMNO Ketuanan Elite that betrayed Tunku then initiated their "Hijack, Corruption, Abuse & Destruction" of UMNO/BN & our Original Constitution based on the Westminster Democracy & the Rule of Law, to its present state...
Gutter Politics & the Law of the Jungle ala Jaguh Kampung of Bolehland 2010 style...
Into the Shakles of the Ketuanan UMNO's "Divide & Rule" Policy AGAIN!
We are all writing to vent our Thoughts, feelings, Fears, Fustrations, etc to the ills of this nation...
Its shortcomings that are affecting us, our families, our children, etc.
Contd...Pt 2
...Pt 2
Just to share this...
Ill Fares the Land - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/10-3
"...The wider the spread between the wealthy few and the impoverished many, the worse the social problems: a statement that appears to be true for rich and poor countries alike. What matters is not how affluent a country is but how unequal it is.
Thus Sweden and Finland, two of the world's wealthiest countries by per capita income or GDP, have a very narrow gap separating their richest from their poorest citizens-and they consistently lead the world in indices of measurable well-being.
Conversely, the United States, despite its huge aggregate wealth, always comes low on such measures.
We spend vast sums on health care, but life expectancy in the US remains below Bosnia and just above Albania. (See Figure 6.)
Inequality is corrosive. It rots societies from within. The impact of material differences takes a while to show up: but in due course competition for status and goods increases; people feel a growing sense of superiority (or inferiority) based on their possessions; prejudice toward those on the lower rungs of the social ladder hardens; crime spikes and the pathologies of social disadvantage become ever more marked.
The legacy of unregulated wealth creation is bitter indeed.[1]
As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate this would have been ridiculed: not only by capitalism's traditional critics but also by many of its staunchest defenders. Relative indifference to wealth for its own sake was widespread in the postwar decades.
In a survey of English schoolboys taken in 1949, it was discovered that the more intelligent the boy the more likely he was to choose an interesting career at a reasonable wage over a job that would merely pay well.[2]
Today's schoolchildren and college students can imagine little else but the search for a lucrative job.
How should we begin to make amends for raising a generation obsessed with the pursuit of material wealth and indifferent to so much else? Perhaps we might start by reminding ourselves and our children that it wasn't always thus.
Thinking "economistically," as we have done now for thirty years, is not intrinsic to humans. There was a time when we ordered our lives differently." Unquote.
You be the judge.
Cheers.
I am just the average "Joe", not too much into cerebral thinking or pondering, not too much into writing much, above average in figuring out certain issues that cause us grief (this doesn't need an Einstein to figure out where most of our ills come from), one who enjoys a good joke occasionally, again just the average joe or jane, fortunate enough to earn an average salary.
When I look around, what do I see:
* Teoh Beng Hock case, still not solved, still plagued with last moment revelations, latest being the yes-suicide or not-suicide note released by our AG after 10 months?? What on earth is happening to a supposedly clear-cut investigation?
* Allantuya case, Bala's affidavits - murder most foul and ridden with horror stories of collusion at the highest level. What is happening?
* Commissions,submarine deals direct deals on tenders, subsidies, etc etc -
Why are astronomical sums of commissions being paid out to half past six companies (or people) set up to receive these monies?
Why are subsidies being cut when the commissions paid out could have allowed more bridges, more roads, more infrastructure, low-cost homes, scholarships,etc.
I look at my pockets and dont see any improvement, where does my hard earned cash go to? The government now says I have to fork out more because it doesnt have enough money!
* Anwar's case - where has the sense of natural justice gone? Why is the accused not accorded his full rights to evidence? Why, when the prosecuting team has been terribly compromised by an alleged 'affair' between the star witness and one of its members, still has not come out to confirm or deny the claim. The tainted case cannot be allowed to go on.
Many more I can quote, but as I said, I am not too much into writing when all these injustices are as clear as day to the average joe or jane.
The power of the pen as they say is mightier than the sword. The ideas that grow are insidious, gets into the brains and thoughts, and finally into action.
What should we do, plain and obvious, change the men and women who continue to try to lead us down the garden path! And then we hope the new team will do better!
Cry, the beloved country.
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