The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Mungkinkah calon Pope dari Afrika? Posted: 27 Feb 2013 09:04 PM PST
28 FEB ― Tepat jam 8 malam waktu tempatan Itali hari ini atau 3 pagi Jumaat waktu Malaysia, Ketua Gereja Roman Katolik, Pope Benedict XVI secara rasminya meletak jawatan. Pengunduran Benedict XVI secara mengejut itu sekaligus menamatkan pemerintahan 7 tahun dan 10 bulan beliau yang dibayangi dengan pelbagai kontroversi. Ia juga secara tidak langsung memberi laluan kepada kalangan 117 Cardinal tertinggi di Vatican untuk bermesyuarat bagi memilih Pope yang baharu. Pastinya, suasana pemilihan kali ini agak berbeza berbanding dengan apa yang berlaku pada April 2005. Ini kerana, ketika itu, dunia meratapi pemergian Pope John Paul II akibat keuzuran. Kali ini pula, Benedict XVI secara sukarela meletak jawatan sesuatu yang tidak pernah dialami oleh Gereja Roman Katolik selama 600 tahun. Kali terakhir seorang Pope meletak jawatan ialah Pope Gregory XII pada 1415. Kali terakhir seorang Pope meletak jawatan tanpa sebarang tekanan ialah Pope Celestine V pada 1294. Ketika itu, Celestine V hanya berada di puncak kekuasaan selama lima bulan namun Celestine V merasakan diri beliau tidak mampu untuk menggalas tanggungjawab berat sekaligus memilih untuk berundur. Pengumuman mengejut Benedict XVI untuk berundur lebih dua minggu lalu ternyata merobah pandangan umum terhadap institusi Pope bahawa seseorang Pope tidak boleh meletak jawatan dan perlu berkhidmat sampai ke nafas terakhir mereka. Pengumuman Benedict XVI nyata memecahkan mitos itu. Keputusan Benedict XVI untuk meletak jawatan sudah pasti akan bermain-main dalam fikiran Pope yang baharu selepas ini apakah beliau juga akan mengambil jalan yang sama sekiranya keadaan tidak mengizinkan. Perkembangan ini juga sudah pasti akan mempengaruhi 117 Cardinal (di bawah usia 80 tahun ke bawah)yang akan mengundi di Sistine Chapel Mac ini untuk memilih seorang Pope yang jauh lebih muda dan berkarisma daripada seorang figura peralihan. Ketika dipilih sebagai Pope pada 2005, Benedict XVI merupakan figura keempat tertua selepas Pope Leo XIII, Pope Clement XII dan Pope Clement X untuk mengetuai Gereja Roman Katolik dan ramai penganalisis percaya, pemerintahannya hanya bersifat sementara dan tidak mungkin menyaingi pemerintahan dinamik selama 27 tahun oleh Pope John Paul II. Hakikatnya, ramai termasuk pemimpin tertinggi gereja di seluruh dunia terkejut dengan tindakan Benedict XVI. Namun bagi Benedict XVI sendiri, tanda-tanda ke arah itu sudah kelihatan. Ini diperkukuhkan lagi dengan lawatan sebanyak dua kali oleh Benedict ke makam Celestine V. Dalam pengumumannya, Benedict XVI memberikan faktor umur yang makin lanjut sebagai alasan untuk berundur. Dari satu sudut, alasan yang dikemukakan Benedict XVI ada asasnya. Ini kerana, beliau dilaporkan mempunyai masalah kesihatan. Namun bagi kalangan pengkritik mereka agak sangsi dengan alasan Benedict XVI memandangkan tidak ramai Pope yang meletak jawatan. Sebaliknya, mereka yakin skandal seks dalam kalangan paderi selain isu Vatileaks sebagai pemangkin utama kepada keputusan Benedict XVI. Sama ada dakwaan yang dilontarkan benar-benar berasas atau sebaliknya, hanya Benedict XVI sahaja yang mengetahuinya. Beberapa laporan media menyebut, Pope baharu akan dilantik sebelum 24 Mac yakni seminggu sebelum sambutan Easter Sunday. Tumpuan kini sudah pasti terarah ke Sistine Chapel, lokasi berlangsungnya pemilihan Pope baharu nanti. Persoalan yang berlegar-legar dalam fikiran semua, siapakah yang bakal dipilih sebagai Pope ke-266? Apakah mungkin seorang Pope dari benua Asia akan terpilih? Bersediakah dan sanggupkah para Cardinal untuk menaruh kepercayaan kepada seorang Pope dari Benua Afrika? Persoalan-persoalan ini berbangkit memandangkan Conclave didominasi oleh Cardinal dari benua Eropah khususnya Itali. Kali terakhir Conclave memilih Pope dari Itali ialah pada 1978 ketika era Pope John Paul 1. Ketika ini, Conclave dianggotai oleh 61 Cardinal dari blok Eropah, 19 dari blok Amerika Latin, 14 dari blok Amerika Utara, 11 dari blok Afrika, 11 dari blok Asia dan satu dari blok Oceania. Biarpun mesyuarat untuk memilih Pope baharu belum bermula, namun sudah ada desas-desus mengenai calon yang disebut-sebut sebagai pengganti Benedict XVI. Antaranya, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson dari Ghana, Cardinal Francis Arinze dari Nigeria, Cardinal Marc Ouellet dari Kanada, Cardinal Angelo Scola dari Itali, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga dari Honduras dan Cardinal Leonardo Sandri dari Argentina. Dari faktor umur, Arinze, 80, mungkin bukanlah pilihan terbaik kerana gereja Roman Katolik pasti tidak mahu satu lagi pemerintahan Pope pendek. Kekerapan penukaran Pope pada dasarnya tidak menguntungkan kepada pihak gereja. Peter Turkson, 64 dan Marc Ouellet, 69, disebut-sebut sebagai calon pilihan setakat ini. Di usia yang agak muda, pemilihan mereka sekurang-kurangnya boleh membantu mengembangkan pertumbuhan Katolisme di Afrika dan Asia. Melihat kepada kadar pertumbuhan Roman Katolik di dunia, benua Afrika kini mencatatkan pertumbuhan paling pantas iaitu 21 peratus dan diikuti oleh benua Asia sebanyak 11 peratus. Manakala pusat utama pertumbuhan Roman Katolik selama ini, Benua Eropah hanya mencatat pertumbuhan sebanyak 2 peratus. Jika angka-angka berkenaan digunakan sebagai penanda aras, sudah tentu calon-calon dari Asia dan Afrika akan merasakan diri mereka layak. Akan tetapi, segala-galanya bergantung kepada musyawarah kalangan Cardinal yang bersidang. Mahu tidak mahu, Pope yang baharu nanti mempunyai tugas berat untuk mengembalikan keyakinan penganut dan umum terhadap institusi gereja yang terpalit dengan pelbagai kontroversi. Apapun, usahlah mana-mana pihak untuk mempersoalkan keputusan Benedict XVI untuk berundur. Pastinya, beliau mempunyai sebab-musabab untuk berbuat demikian dan seharusnya semua menghormati keputusan beliau. * Ini adalah pandangan peribadi penulis. | |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2013 04:42 PM PST
FEB 28 — "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for." — Robert Browning In my first university debate coach gig I made a difficult promise. I told one of my trainees that money would be found to get him to a debate competition abroad. Later, in a crushing fashion the window of opportunity closed and I had to let the lad stay behind. Four months of training came to nought and he was very disappointed with me. I reflect on that experience when I am asked to promise important things. Reflecting does not mean that I am in failsafe mode, for I fail just as much. It just tells me beforehand not to take promises lightly. It helps me become serious when I have to promise. Today in Malaysia, it is the season of doing exactly that, making promises. An election manifesto is a series of promises, often under a set of premises or principle statements. If promises are bonds one should not break, then what is a good promise? Promises are difficult in their very nature. If they were not difficult, they need not be made, and when made laughed at. For example, I don't promise my office-mates when I reach the office in the morning that at some point in that day, no matter how late, I will go home. But if they are impossible, then they become incredulous. As in the above, I don't promise my office mates that I'll wear a cape and fly home by day's end. A good promise is ambitious yet grounded, and the character of the persons pledging equally determines them being delivered. So you consider the promise, and you consider the man. Is that too subjective for the common man to judge? Perhaps not. In life, all of us make promises and are equally expecting some from others. People by definition have an intimate comprehension of what promises constitute, as they live by and off them. And live by the side of those who have met their promises or failed them. Pakatan has a set of promises Pakatan Rakyat, the coalition of three political parties, one of which I work for, has an election manifesto. It will rely on the veracity and diligence of the ideas in it to convince those who like to know how things are to be done, and what would represent success. The short-term desired outcome, votes. The real desired outcome, the one that will take years, is the actual delivery of those promises, for within them lies the chance for a better life for millions. It is numerous and it has details. The cynic might point out that it only takes a madman plenty of idle time to generate reams and reams of text. I agree. However it is undeniable that most of these Pakatan ideas in the form of this manifesto have been articulated consistently over the years, they are not new nor are they being championed by a Johnny-come-lately. The Malaysian people are perfectly entitled to call Pakatan men mad, but our political opponents have to come to the table with more than the circular assertion that these plans of ours will not work because they have never been used, and therefore never been successful and therefore unsuccessful ideas should not be used because good ideas would have worked by now. There is a limit to incumbency as proof of value, and parallel to that, there is no fixed ceiling to what a new federal government can achieve. Our voters will always be our biggest critics, but I have to tell my competitors, they have to gear up and compete. From easy to difficult, set your dial Read and re-read the Pakatan manifesto, so you can agree or disagree better. There are quick gains bolstered by a new government. There is low level of accountability in the way public funds are administered if heightened will fattened the treasury. These will be the easy wins for Pakatan. Then the difficult ones. Creating a million jobs in one term, while whittling down reliance on foreign labour is a huge undertaking, more so if the jobs intended are decent paying ones, not just temporary clerical contracts in ministries. A government can set the conditions through policy-making and engage the private sector, but business realities and global economy will affect considerably. Here, the jury must examine the intent, process and outcome. Healthcare and jobs continue to be US President Barack Obama's priorities, and the American people decided his second term not only on the results but the effort and focus applied by his administration to the challenges. They had to factor the Congress he had to work with to get the results. Not dissimilar to Selangor trudging to success while an omniscient and omnipotent federal government housed in its heart dictates finances, laws and media. Still millions of Malaysians are set to enjoy some solid policies which are long overdue: The ending of cabotage which effectively forces the prices of imported goods in Sabah and Sarawak to be more expensive than in the peninsula; handing 141,000 hectares of land back to the Orang Asli; ending unhealthy monopolies so that cable TV, rice, sugar and transportation will be more affordable; and letting military procurement be pro-military, not pro-politicians. Our feudal lords over at the manor meanwhile... Even in 2008, the Pakatan parties did not have their policy thoughts in a cohesive manner right through to Election Day. Today they have, and it is frightening to say the least to Umno and its coalition. We are at the eve of a general election and the BN general approach is to give small payments — BR1M, school vouchers, cheaper motorcycle licences, more RELA allowances — and ignoring armed militants. Solutions have come in the way of picking the lower quality goods in its Kedai Satu Malaysia for the millions of Malaysians whose purchasing power is diminishing by the month. There is no easing up in handing out fat contracts to key supporters and leaders, even a lame effort to have a moratorium till Election Day is absent. Still, voters' mentality is never straightforward. To the Malaysian people, the choice may have to be practical when in the polling booth; I won't begrudge people for not wanting to rock the boat. And believe me, in the next few weeks, the emphasis on why it is so crucial to never rock this imaginary vessel will reach a crescendo. But between the fear-mongering, I'd welcome you to talk about the manifesto, even if you want to deride it. Already you would be steps ahead of most BN candidates who'd just spew the cliff-notes rebuttal Mothership Umno HQ will issue them. Even if we don't get your vote, we'd like to get your judgment on our thinking. Anyway, we've got a series of neat ideas we'd like to carry out. * Praba will return to his principle issues of the coming general election next week. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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