March 14, 2013
| Praba Ganesan is Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Social Media Strategist. He wants to engage with you, and learn from your viewpoints. You can contact him at prabaganesan@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @prabaganesan |
MARCH 14 — Morality in Malaysia is about fear. It has been like that for some time. Fear is certainly the most consistent part of growing up in our system, and I worry that in time those who come after me will think I too am responsible for the fear they've inherited.
Here I want to champion hope, and promulgating it into our national psyche.
Which is why writing about the fifth and the most telling consideration for a voter come this general election, I am hesitant. For moral leadership is what distinguishes a leader with power, and a man who is a citizen first, a leader second. For the latter, being a leader only matters because Malaysia matters, and never the other way around.
Moral leadership can be so easily be mistaken for populism and opportunism. If it appears impossible, demands great attention and time, dilutes your political capital and feels thankless to engage to the leader, then he may be exhibiting qualities of a moral leader.
While jobs, security, education and healthcare are pillars of good government and the basis to pick a new one or to stay with the incumbent, moral leadership determines the esprit de corps of any nation.
And so many of us will readily agree that, whether you vote Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional (BN) in the coming election, living in Malaysia has gotten complicated in the last half decade.
Ardent BN voters will point out to so many people who've emerged from a stolid system with better lives today are too cynical and critical of how things were and continue to be. Surely they'd not be OK today if the system was not OK to begin with, they ask. It worked, somewhat. So why abandon that reality?
I know a local graduate who asked for Bersih chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan to be deported to India on her Facebook account, because she is of the opinion that everything in Malaysia is great and is being ruined rapidly by those challenging long-set ideas. Pakatan supporters will in return as enthusiastically say that version of the past is sanitised and voids the real price of nation-building, downplays the role of the individual and overplays the ruling elite.
For most voters, the times have changed whether they can or cannot make sense of the past, what they are more aware of are their own wants and needs. They can't just be told what is good for them, they have to feel the good in a manner befitting them, and they can be let down rather easily.
Today, they prefer a good man leading them than a man of means or reputation.
The deliberations
This multicultural nation has multitudes of issues from race relations, religious supremacy, cultural space, free speech and political representation.
None of them are easy, I don't envy any sitting prime minister especially the present one to solve them effortlessly, but the degree of difficulty is not an excuse to ignore them.
They do not ultimately decide if our schools work or jobs are being generated, but as they linger without resolution, the harmony of the state is interrupted.
The use of the word "Allah" for instance, BN staying in Putrajaya or Pakatan displacing them won't end the dispute.
This column is not intending to untangle the theological contentions it is merely recognising that there are committed groups who have definite ideas on what is correct.
Any outcome will be disappointing to both sides in degrees. A better leader would engage both groups equally and fairly from the point of dispute, explain to both what all of us are beholden to, the Federal Constitution. Neither may be persuaded, but both will appreciate the effort to persuade them.
The present solution of having two separate policies for Peninsular Malaysia, and Sabah and Sarawak divides the nation and keeps an uneasy peace.
It has a large sticker reading "temporary" on it.
The great communicator
It is not surprising that most history-altering moments of social evolution, abolition of slavery, Universal Suffrage and end of colonialism were led by men who could share their ideas and speak their conviction. Those were brave moves, and the population relied on the idea as much as the proponents' blind faith in things never before possible.
By the looks of things in Malaysia, we would need copious amounts of great communicators to convince the nation forward on so many deadlocks that continue to plague our advancement as a people.
By design, many things here are confusing, difficult to tell or split into parts possible to decipher.
Therefore any leader of our country after the general election would be expected to not only want to engage with the longstanding stalemates but to communicate with stakeholders.
Who then?
How would our leaders fare, considering all the above?
That is up to the voter. My caution to all is not to think that all politicians are the same, therefore rendering this consideration superfluous.
Some stand up for something, others stand for nothing, and if they are not different then to most of us, then this country is in for some serious soul-searching.
More importantly, some might have been standing up for you and bleeding for that privilege, and you never bothered to realise.
Think about that when you walk to the polling room.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist
The Malaysian Insider :: Food
HONG KONG, March 11 — Designer Jimmy Choo has teamed up with the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong for a fashionably delicious offering.From April, tourists will be able to eat pastries created by ... 
KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 ― When asked to suggest a place in KL for high tea outside of hotels, a friend was stumped. Sure, many places serve tea and cakes but a dedicated high tea is something else. If ... 
MARCH 12 — "Reason not the need, the man says. Need not the reason. We don't know. We simply don't know." – There but for the, Ali SmithSometimes I wonder if we actually know what we're thinking when ... 
NEW YORK, March 12 — Bestselling American writer Christopher McDougall's hit book Born to Run — published in some 15 languages and soon to be adapted into a film — has inspired a generation of runners to ... 
SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 — Powerful Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg is out to make herself less of an anomaly as she launches a campaign to inspire women to pursue their passions at work and at home.The ... 
Helikopter jenis peninjau dan pengangkut menggunakan enjin berkembar serta mampu memuatkan lapan penumpang itu diperlukan bagi mengukuhkan lagi kekuatan pasukan keselamatan dalam usaha menggempur pengganas sejak pencerobohan dikesan 12 Feb lepas.