Rishi Sunak, the 42-year-old former finance minister becomes the first Prime Minister of UNited Kingdom of Indian origin.
This is a hurrah for UK in crossing cultural borders, hopefully humanity's steps moving towards being human beings instead of being boxed into artificial man made constructs.
I wish Sunak the best in managing UK and hopefully, his foreign policy is humane.
I recall, when I first started blogging, I did so because that gave me an opportunity to unload much of my thoughts on diverse subjects. It was sort of like a self therapy.
I could write on topics which I thought were important or current. I wrote passionately and honestly. The good thing about your own blog is that you can decide what you want to write and how you want to write it.
There are no editors editing your thoughts or ideas.
For a while I was lucky to be given an opportunity to write for newspapers and other news portals.It has its advantage because of its reach. The disadvantage is that you may not have the complete freedom, understandably, to write what you wish, how you wish. In other words, when you write for others, you may be constrained by their policies and worse, their mindset or mental limitations, which can be frustrating.
I want to write as objectively as possible on topics that I think need to addressed. Or simply to express my thoughts on something at that particular moment in my life.
Now I am wondering......should I go back to blogging my thoughts?
Whats your views?
Thanks.
END.
It is good to note that there are diverse views and debates as to how the Malaysian political scene can bring about a “new Malaysia”.
Former Malaysian diplomat, Dennis Ignatius, had called for older politicians to step aside and make way for younger leaders.
On the other hand, academician Prof Dr Tajuddin Rasdi is of the opinion that “New Malaysia can only come about through the painful birth process of a transition between old and young leaders, as well as Muslim versus Malaysian, leadership”.
Reading Tajuddin’s opinion in a Malaysian daily, he seems to suggest that political changes in the country cannot be achieved if “Malay sensitives” are not addressed.
He gave various examples, which apparently had not gone down well with the Malays – such as the Rome Statute issue – and had brought about the downfall of Pakatan Harapan (PH).
I would opine that the main reason PH fell was because of poor leadership, due to the weak structure within PH itself.
If PH had strong and cohesive leadership, dealing with issues like the Rome Statute and others, would have been a cakewalk.
Tajuddin seems to argue that only someone with “Malay and Muslim credentials” can “change” Malaysia and the Malays.
Under the current political circumstances, only a Malay Muslim can rise to the highest position in this country. That’s a given.
However, when you talk about creating a “new Malaysia”, there are several important factors to consider – other than a Malay Muslim leader.
Firstly, what kind of new Malaysia do you have in mind? Something that is “more Malay and more Islamic”? Whatever that means.
The notion of what kind of “Malay-ness” and what kind of Islam you want to create in the country is important.
This, therefore, will depend on the second factor – the quality of the leader itself.
If the leader is a political animal, we cannot expect substantial changes in society because he may end up being a populist, and a chameleon.
He may not have the moral courage, intellectual strength, and the political will to bring about radical changes needed to move the country forward and improve the people’s general wellbeing in the long run.
A Malay Muslim leader, who is going to forever pander to the so called “Malay Muslim sensitivities” for political expediency, will not bring about a much awaited “new Malaysia”.
Thirdly, we need a Malay Muslim leader with a true vision (and not one who copies someone else’s) which he believes is good for the country.
So, you need someone with brains, not just the academically qualified.
Of course, you will have advisors around you, but you must have the ability to look at things from different perspectives, possess macro-level thinking, even be prophetic, to a certain extent.
For this to happen, one must be a thinker, and as multi-knowledgeable as possible, and humble enough to learn as he/she leads.
I am fully aware and accept that pragmatically, the majority of the polity is Malay Muslim, and hence, you can manipulate them for power’s sake.
However, I am more concerned with the true wellbeing of the nation (the majority included).
Hence, to create a new Malaysia, the majority of the polity needs to be educated.
We have to go for mindset change and recognise leaders who will embark on that change.
We have to recognise the Malay Muslim leaders who want to free the Malay Muslims and other citizens from the shackles of political trickery shrouded in ethnicity and religion.
These are the much-needed characteristics of a Malaysian leader who will make Malaysia great, and its citizens grateful and proud.
Originally appeared in TwentyTwo13
By Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos.
WHEN the image of disruptive antics of some of the members of Parliament floods the mind, it is possible to overlook the important role that MPs play in a democracy like ours.
In our democracy, the Constitution is the supreme law of the nation. It decides how our government is supposed to run and sets out the roles of the executive, legislative, judiciary and the Agong.
The Malaysian Parliament is made up of Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara. During the general elections, we elect 222 MPs to the Dewan Rakyat as our representatives. Currently, we have the 14th Parliament in session which means that this Parliament is made of the MPs who were elected in the past 14th General Election. What are their roles in our democracy?
The most important role of the MPs is their legislative powers. They have the power to make the necessary laws for peace, order, development, good governance, education, national harmony, the environment and so on.
In short, all those laws that affect every aspect of our life in the country is made and passed by the majority of the MPs. This is a very important role because the kind of laws that are made will not only affect the development of the country but will impact directly on the quality of life of the citizen.
Please continue reading it by clicking on the link here ---> Through Many Windows.
A PERSON’s capabilities are only seen during times of crisis. The same is true for political leadership.
We do not say that a leader is great because he spends on grandiose projects using the taxpayer’s money to carve out his legacy. We only consider him great when he allocates the country’s resources wisely and thriftily to increase the general welfare of the people.
And when he spends the money to increase the number of educated citizens, in terms of thinking abilities, skills, citizenry, compassionate and humanitarian values, and ensures that every citizen who wants has access to free education up to the tertiary level.
A leader is loved when he strives to raise the dignity of the average citizen regardless of ethnicity, religion or social class. When he allocates budget to ensure that every citizen has access to affordable healthcare, housing, sustainable transportation facilities, employment opportunities, and the basic amenities required to live a life with dignity.
At the end of the day, the budget comes from the rakyat in terms of the taxes that he pays and the national debt that he and the future generation have to carry. It is not the personal resources of the leaders to do as they wish or to enrich themselves and their cronies by carving out the budget among themselves,
Continue reading by clicking on this link The Star/Through Many Windows
HERE are many truths in life. Most of the time it is ever present before us. However, there are people with vested interests who try to distort the truth and lead us on a road of delusion, far from reality. The road of delusion and denial of reality often ends with misery and sufferings. One such truth that we should remind ourselves and hold on to it steadfastly is the diversity of life.
All we have to do is to simply look at what makes up life. We are familiar with the seven colours of the rainbow. According to researchers, we can see about 1,000 levels of dark-light and about 100 levels each of red-green and yellow-blue. Botanists know the truth about the plant kingdom – there is no single but diverse types of plants that can be categorised in diverse ways.
The same holds true for the animal kingdom and everything else that exists on earth – there is variety and diversity, not homogeneity. If you look at nature, all creatures in nature, plants and animals, do not find diversity a threat to their existence. On the contrary, they accept that diversity is what sustains their survivability and existence on earth. There is no denial.
Humans, however, being the more intelligent being are still grappling with this truth of diversity both in the “secular and religious world views”. We have created various social constructs, ostensibly to assist us to understand human life and human communities better.
Many of these social constructs arise due to the nature of human interaction and the manner in which human beings have evolved over millions of years. Examples of social constructs are ethnicity, religion, languages, culture and so on.
These things exist because we have agreed that they exist. They become the norm and through time are taken to be “normal”. They may not exist in objective reality. For example, the definition or understanding of an “ethnicity” or “race” is clearly a social construct to define a group that has satisfied certain agreed and set criteria.
Is a Chinese baby brought up by Malay parents and embraces Islam and grows up as a Malay, a Malay or Chinese? Likewise what about the Malay baby who grew up as a German in Germany? Asking questions like this will make you understand the concept of objective reality and artificial constructs.
In any event, the moment you understand that there are diverse religions, cultures, languages, and ethnicity in the world, you will be able to peacefully understand and accept the existence of this diversity. You will not make the diversity as a cause for disunity, distrust, stereotyping or hatred. You will be able to see that beyond the clothing of social constructs lies humanity that needs to be awakened and respected.
It is false that all the good people are in one social construct and all the bad are in another social construct. The labels of religion and ethnicity or cultures do not determine superiority, it is the good conduct of human beings. Substance rather than form.
However, we have to be careful of the ignorant but loud and persuasive politicians that lead humans down the road of division and disunity exploiting the artificial social constructs.
These are the kind that sow distrust, hatred and disunity among human beings based on differences of religion and ethnicity. They do this to hold themselves out as champions of one ethnic group against another.
At the end of the day, people will see that these politicians and their own families become enriched to become elites of society at the expense of the divided country. These politicians are often supported by some the religious groups in their societies. Religion can also confer status, power and wealth if properly manipulated.
In Malaysia for example, there are still politicians who play the race card and religious groups who play the religious cards. The abuse of religion sometimes becomes very dangerous in our country where it has bred extremism and even exclusivity.
Shockingly, a decade ago, I have heard a Chinese Muslim academic in this country erroneously argue that Allah has created India for Indians and China for Chinese in allegedly Islamic terms. He was obviously pandering to a Malay crowd to argue that Malaysia is for Malays. These are baseless arguments without any basis in the Quran and Sunnah.
Obviously, this academic has not read the many clear verses in the Quran which teach that our diversity is a blessing and we are required to live peacefully together (Al Hujurat verse 13). That the oppressed in one part of the world have a duty to migrate to another (Surah An Nisa verse 97-100) and that it was Allah’s will to create diversity (Al Maidah Verse 48).
He was obviously equally oblivious to the fact that Allah had also chosen to place the Orang Asli, Kadazan Dusun, Muruts, Bidayuhs, Melanau and 33 other indigenous groups that communicate in over 50 languages and 80 ethic dialects in Sabah. His argument becomes more dangerous because he attempts to frame it in “Islamic” terms. I was too young to rebut then.
If we all take a deep breath and we do not either get drowned in our self-imposed ignorance or in our self-imposed “academic or religious” arrogance, our sense of compassion within each of us will allow us to embrace the rightful place of the other. Let us work towards that instead of being trapped by those who use secular or religious tricks to divide us.
END.
