The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2013 04:49 PM PDT
MARCH 12 — Amir Al Mumineen Omar ibn AlKhattab: "Good behaviour towards people is equivalent to wisdom, to request politely is half of knowledge, and to ascribe to sound policies is half of one's livelihood." The court of public opinion is the ultimate knowledge bank as the collective intelligence of the people is greater than any one person's. Thus, White Papers, public comment, etc, are often utilised to gain more insight, add more depth, and so on to undertakings. To write articles on pressing and provocative issues for public consumption using one's real name takes time, effort and dedication. For any writer, comments, constructive criticism and feedback, etc, are always welcome as one always strives to do better. I view such articles as podium-speech, much like a speaker presenting at a conference or seminar. Upon finishing the lecture, the floor is opened to the audience for questions, comments, clarifications, and, sometimes, mini-presentations. The questions and comments are not personal attacks (most of the time), and even when the questions are written-in, civility is maintained. The lack of anonymity combined with "audience societal pressure" works well to avoid personal character assassinations. Downside of anonymity While the Internet has resulted in more voices on any given subject matter, anonymity has resulted in, at times, offensive personal comments/attacks that would not be aired during, say, a conference. Some websites have taken the decision to not include comments, and others have "report abuse" options. Furthermore, where comments are allowed, usually a thumbs up or thumbs down functionality typically shows the public's reaction, by way of click voting, to comments. Thus, they act like a commentary on comments, which, allows, at one level, checks and balances on civility. Put another way, the click votes are like a good lawyer impeaching a hostile witness during cross examination. One of the comments I often read after an article is: "I will not get back the 10 minutes of my life (I spent) reading the article." Hmm, then why not stop after the first paragraph? Unless, the first paragraph itself took 10 minutes! Negative campaigning Are negative personal attacks on a writer similar to negative or smear campaigns during elections? Such attacks actually cause more harm to some writers, who may not have acquired a thick skin and so do not write again, and, we, as a society, lose with one less voice. In elections, negative campaigning is becoming less popular as it no longer resonates with the mainstream voters. The politicians have realised that it's more about subject matter, exposure and expertise and less about mud-slinging. Those reading personal attack comments vote in a similar way, with a "thumbs down." A possible way forward is to incorporate the comments much like letters to the editor in respected newspapers, where real names and addresses are required as a precondition to the acceptance to the letter. This screens the riff from the raff. Model behaviour We Muslims have always looked to the Quran and the Sunnah of the beloved Prophet (saw) for peace and guidance in our daily lives. The Prophet (saw) said: "I am leaving two things among you, and if you cling to them firmly you will never go astray; one is the Book of Allah and the other is my way of life." (Farewell Pilgrimage: Muatta) Oftentimes, when I feel I may have slightly deviated from the path, I have to remind myself with some of the sayings of the Prophet (saw). "Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith." (Muslim) "It is better to sit alone than in company with the bad; and it is better still to sit with the good than alone. It is better to speak to a seeker of knowledge than to remain silent; but silence is better than idle words." (Bukhari) "All Muslims are like a foundation, each strengthening the other; in such a way they do support each other." (Abu Musa: Bukhari & Muslim) "Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind." (Muslims and Bukhari) Here, the takeaway point is about the dignity of civility, and not just towards fellow Muslims, but fellow human beings. We are, after all, ambassadors of our faith and role models for the next generation. Open mic In fairness, let's give those who make comments under pseudo names an opportunity to submit bylined pieces with their real names on a subject matter that is near and dear to them. Maybe such people are irritated because they have not been given opportunity to submit pieces or their submissions have been rejected by the media in question. The subject matter could be about tolerance, freedom of speech, a rationale for their comments, or even on how the beloved Prophet Mohammad (saw) conducted himself with friends, fiends, and foes. Many of my fellow colleagues and me would welcome the opportunity to read these bylined pieces, as learning is a neverending journey. The "keyboard" is in your court. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. | |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2013 04:32 PM PDT
MARCH 12 — My dad took me to my first game of football when I was four years old. I am now 40. In the intervening 36 years, I have been to a lot of football matches. That debut trip was to Norwich's Carrow Road, and I probably went to another 20 games there before we moved to Leicester, where I became a "Junior Fox" and attended roughly 100 games. Then we moved south and supported non-league Wokingham Town (around 100 games) and top-flight Southampton (200 games). Eventually, I got a job at Reading Football Club, where I worked for 11 years and attended something in the region of 500 games. And now I live in Barcelona, where I'm up to around 30 games and counting. Over the years, then, I have been to something like 950 games as a fan, an employee and a reporter. I've watched all levels of football, from non-league Wokingham to Champions League Barcelona; I've witnessed promotions, relegations, unlikely cup runs and plenty of mid-table mediocrity. I have, in short, watched a lot of football in a wide variety of situations. I should therefore be in a good position to understand the game. Yet I still do not really have a clue why teams lose and gain that most elusive of qualities: form. I can speculate and offer a few educated guesses, but that's all they are. The truth is that, despite all my years of watching the game, I cannot really tell you what makes teams play well or badly over a sustained period of time. This realisation struck me on Saturday night, as I witnessed Barcelona labour their way through a 2-0 victory over bottom-of-the-table Deportivo La Coruna. Barca are currently a classic example of a team out of form. I can assert that their biggest problem is a lack of tempo to their passing. They are playing too slowly and too predictably to create gaps in the opposition defences. That much I am confident about. But why has this sudden inability appeared, when they were routinely scoring four and five goals per game just a few weeks ago? Here, I have to throw my hands in the air, shrug my shoulders and admit that all I can do is guess. The biggest implosion in form I can remember came during my final season working at Reading. It was 2008/9, our first season back in the Championship after the previous campaign's relegation from the Premier League. We started the season very well, looking by far the best team in the division, and after a 1-0 home win over Wolves at the end of January, promotion looked a dead cert. But then the team fell apart, winning just four more games (in 19 attempts) all season and eventually losing in the playoffs. Why did it happen? The team had been dominant and seemingly cruising to promotion, but then all of a sudden they just couldn't win. It was baffling, but my lack of understanding was shared by the manager, Steve Coppell, who would respond to the inevitable question of what had gone wrong with the gruff reply: "If I knew that, I would do something about it." Whatever causes good and bad form, it has to be two sides of the same coin. When certain things are in place, they result in teams playing well: they enjoy good form. Yet when those certain things are taken away, the same players will respond by performing nowhere near as well: they suffer bad form. I've already admitted that I can do no more than guess what those "certain things" might be. But I suspect the ultimate cause of good or bad form could be described as "shared motivation." As the former Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth put it in his highly entertaining autobiography: "We're only at our best when we're ascending towards something. And when you're ascending, you're furious, you're focused; you have to be, or you'll fall off." In team sports, good form occurs when a group of players are all simultaneously "ascending" with furious focus towards the same goal, and doing it in the same way. It will often be an unconscious, unspoken understanding that creates a positive dynamic between a group of people who share a common ambition. That happened at Reading during the record-breaking 2005/6 Championship-winning campaign, when all the players, management and staff were "furiously focused" on one objective — promotion — and were willing to subsume short-term personal interests in the knowledge that individual gratification would eventually be granted by the accomplishment of the shared group objective. The result was good form. Conversely, bad form results when different people have different motivations and/or methods of working and are therefore pulling in different directions. In those disastrous few months in 2009, for example, some Reading players wanted a new contract; others had just been awarded a new contract and were maybe coasting; others wanted to leave. There was no sense of communal "ascending." In football, management and leadership is very important in defining the shared objective and putting into place the necessary working methodologies that will allow it to be achieved. The manager or head coach provides the vision; if it is expressed coherently and consistently enough, the players buy into it and work together to "ascend" towards it. Barcelona's current problems, in that context, can probably be explained by the ongoing absence of their manager Tito Vilanova, who has spent the last seven weeks in New York for a course of medical treatment after undergoing cancer surgery. Without his guidance to show the players how their ambitions can be achieved, Barcelona are looking lost and playing without any kind of purpose or conviction. They know what they want to achieve, but are unsure how they should go about it because the vision provided by Vilanova is missing. Without his leadership, ascending has turned rapidly into descending. Barca have an opportunity to shake off their bad form tonight, as they attempt to reverse a 2-0 first-leg deficit against AC Milan. Their players are clearly good enough to do it but, from an objective perspective, it's difficult to see how that can be achieved without the guiding hand of their manager to show them how they should ascend towards their shared goal. I hope I'm proved wrong, but by this time tomorrow I expect to see AC Milan in the Champions League quarter-finals — Barca just don't have the form to make it otherwise. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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