The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2013 04:25 PM PDT
JUNE 13 — When I was in university, a lecturer once advised me to make the most of my student years by making friends with everyone. And she meant everyone — no matter how different their interests, likes and dislikes are from mine. For years I never fully grasped the depth of her advice. Remember the last time you had a good, interesting conversation with a complete stranger? Both of you didn't know anything about the other person. But somehow you found one common topic of interest to talk about. Something in common. Then you share your personal takes on that that subject. Your view and stand may have been a complete opposite of the stranger's, but you both heard the other's reasoning and understood where the other was coming from. In the end you both gained a bit extra perspective about the subject. And there is the bonus of feeling good after having a pleasant chat, too, stranger or not. In this sort of exchanges, we usually come away with a little extra understanding about why people whose views are completely opposite of ours think that way. Even if understanding does not equate to agreeing. I am amazed by how we can all be presented with the same facts, digest the same news reports yet come away with sometimes completely different opinions. Partially it's because every one of us has our own individual perspectives born out of our own individual life experiences. What we've learned, how we've learned them, our mistakes and everything else in our lives so far forms a uniquely personal lens through which we see the world. It's akin to a mountain — 10 people from 10 different locations at the foothills will see the same mountain yet with slightly different views. With this in mind, we also need to remember that we tend to hang around people who are not too different from us. We socially gravitate towards those we can identify with and that means our immediate circle of friends would likely share our opinions, our views and see things the same way we do. It's only natural because in the end we want friends who are compatible with us. Birds of the feather flock together. But this tendency also often leads to tunnel vision. When our social environment is in-line with our personal opinions, the social reinforcement that follows becomes a barrier against understanding divergent views. Our perspective becomes restricted and we see things from a narrow point of view because there is no one in our immediate social circle to provide an alternative viewpoint. Now, I'm not suggesting you approach every stranger you see on the street today and start asking for opinions on anything that strikes your fancy. I'm saying it wouldn't do any harm to say hi and strike up a conversation with strangers at your next social function. Some may bore you to tears, but sometimes you may get lucky and hit a conversational jackpot that turns your otherwise dull luncheon into the highlight of your day. Last week I went to see a doctor for some medication. When he found out that I'm a journalist, we entered into a lengthy — but interesting — conversation that started from the pros and cons of paywalls for news content and ended after a discussion on the pace of Malaysian political evolution. We had some disagreements, of course, but I was happy to have had some insight into why the good doctor felt how he does on those subjects. I came away with the feeling that I understood my own opinions a little bit more after the exchange. As I left the consultation room, Ken Watanabe's line from a 2003 movie came to mind: "This is a very good conversation." * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. | |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2013 04:19 PM PDT
JUNE 13 — There is a generation now being asked to take the reins of the country, whether they are in a political party or not. That generation's time is now here, and I fear they are unsurprisingly reluctant. For this group, leading others into the unknown is unnatural. Counting a generation Those born between the forced removal of Singapore from the Federation of Malaysia to the moment Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister, this is what I refer to as the Reluctant Generation. Birth dates falling between 1965 and 1981, and I am part of that generation. They who came to this world soon after when simple territorial and demographic links could not hold the original federation together — and perhaps our first original sin as independent nation — and up to the point when three prime ministers were done and a single-minded man began his rule and whose legacy continues to define today's realities. Today, they are in the age to lead. In their mid-thirties at least, they have most of the population being born after them, and an uncertain future for the country ahead of them, they are now expected to pick up the baton of national leadership, in commerce, public service or politics. Their time in leadership will determine the quality of generations to come. The bonds they share Tom Brokaw's seminal "The Greatest Generation" always emphasised that often the majority of people from any given generation — and in that instance the Americans who served at home and away during World War Two, and the life of service they had thereafter — are a result of the prevailing conditions and values of the years they grew up in. The corporals, ace pilots, combat nurses and war supply factory workers were children of the Depression and knew having nothing was not the worst outcome. The worst was not fighting to rise above the nothing. That explained their character. Our own reluctant generation was being registered as Primary One students in the aftermath of May 13, in the early 1970s. They were not captive audience to the events which manoeuvred the country into a forced trajectory from the 1970s onwards, but they had to experience the decisions, starting at school. The Malay language was not streamlined as the medium of instruction in stages, it was rushed down throats overnight, to suit the ultra-nationalists' hunger for change immediate and wholesale. Children naturally pick up languages far better than adults and were not severely handicapped. But the adults, the teachers came from decades of using English to teach biology to history and many were quickly realising they were made redundant through the execution of policy. The textbooks could not keep up with the bursting student population and new schools. It was not that the printers were in disrepair, but a galling lack of highly-trained people to write on various subject matters for various stages of learning in English. Quality was compromised due to that and a generation paid the price. The system was dealing with the situation year to year, and some might argue though those specific problems don't persist today, the attitude of planning out education processes in terms of curriculum, grading and teacher training in short spurts remains. And my generation always slaved along with an understanding it is our minders' prerogative to change their minds consistently, and therefore policies, and for us to adjust ourselves adequately to all eventualities. We are used to being guinea pigs of an intemperate nation. Which does explain how millions of them have gone abroad and have seamlessly fit into various societies — whether they are progressively multicultural or stubbornly homogenous. And the need to submit to authority did not end in the public schools. By the time they were in university in the early '80s and beyond, the days of Baling protests and student power were memories. The Universities and University Colleges Act 1974 was firmly in place, with the student affairs department keeping strong watch over the undergraduates and their living space. By the time the last of the Reluctant Generation started attending tertiary education towards the end of the '90s, despite the age of Reformasi in full throttle, major dragnets in campuses were actively diffusing democratic awareness. Ambers of youthful confidence were dying in the dark depths of institutional control. Mindful too, these are citizens who in the majority did not have computers prevalent in their classrooms throughout their years in the public schools. Most had to spend their university days or even their early working years to catch up with an information age set to isolate them if they resisted. Even the end of the Cold War, which infused in our peers elsewhere in the world a spirit of enthusiasm for a brave new world, Malaysia neutrality rendered the event less instrumental to us. More so, those were the Mahathir power reconsolidation years (1987-1992), therefore a yearning for hope was absent and in its place a meanness in the air, where might was right was tattooed into the people through Operasi Lalang, newspaper bans and the curtailing of the royalty. A time for Malaysian leadership While the majority of Malaysian voters will soon be those below 35, those older than them in their early forties are looked on to as the leaders of the pack for now. But both the experience of being used as a social experiment, treated to strict national disciplinary enforcements and spending the better part of the millennium to be fully immersed in the information age and become its associate member even if not full member, the urge to get along without fuss looms over the generation. A sentiment which does not spell boldness. While there are some wilder characters in the mix, by large the group is by choice docile. Which is why the contrast with the next generation, those born through the Mahathir years is considerable, and the affect of the ones to replace us will grow in the next 10 years. A hungrier majority which may falsely expect those marginally older than them — my generation — to be imaginative at least, or to exceed expectation and to be inspirational at times. It appears more and more that my generation does share the cynicism of the young, unfortunately it exhibits an equal amount of cynicism for itself. We are not only rejecting the ideas of the past, but we lacking faith in our own ideas, in our own capacity to lead those before and after us. This is when I hope I am wrong. That instead, there is enough verve and spirit in my generation to mark its place in this country's history. Therefore, the Reluctant Generation is not termed later also as a Lost Generation. Time will tell. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan