Seven tips for Malaysian leaders — Mooreyameen Mohamad
JUNE 6 — Here are seven tips for Malaysian politicians on both sides, civil servants and government authorities:
1) Stop racial politics. Leave our past behind. We’re bored of it. Our past wasn’t that great. We’re more interested in the future. We want “The Avengers”. Not “Titanic”. That ship sailed a long time ago, remember? (Not to mention that it sank)
2) Leave religion alone. By its true definition, it’s between me and my God. Any interference from any authorities imply that you know better than God. Having to repeatedly point out that this clearly is not the case, is tiresome. And what do you do when you get tired of something? You walk away.
3) Give us a checklist of things you promised and show us what you delivered. Despite the complaints about our education system, we can actually read, do arithmetic and reason. If you say you’re so good, show us.
4) Take leadership. Don’t stay silent about things that go wrong. By staying silent, you imply support, concurrence, ignorance, and disinterest. All of which are wrong reactions when something goes wrong. We prefer our leaders to have some backbone.
5) Put yourself in our shoes. You claim we don’t appreciate the trouble you go through to make our lives better? See how “great” our lives are when we scramble for coins to pay for the toll just to get to work, when the month’s electricity bill threatens to approach the minimum wage, when our own government constantly find ways and excuses to limit our freedom, which we thought was wrestled from the clenched fists of our colonial masters so many decades ago. While most of us were not there, I seriously doubt we would appreciate a re-enactment of colonial-style oppression.
6) Banning stuff just doesn’t work. Especially books, movies, and anything on the internet. Try debating it to death — it would show maturity and depth, which we like in our leaders. We don’t like our leaders to be like our grandmother, who thinks just because we don’t talk about it in front of her, that she therefore does not smell.
7) Your only loyalty should be to us, the people. If you don’t like it, don’t take the job. Nobody said it was going to be easy trying to please 28 million people. But that is the job.
* Mooreyameen Mohamad reads The Malaysian Insider
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
