Learning Points a-plenty

Learning Points a-plenty in the past eventful week.

 

1.       Mak needs her space,and even if that is not agreeable by my standards, I’d need to accept it and move on. She has her own way of dealing with things, and my role is to provide an alternative viewpoint, not to force it on her. This would a valuable learning point to be taken from the Menang perspective – you must work hard to ensure your perspective is heard, your spin is acceptable, and the logic impeccable. These are the main barriers to support to the ideas, and the task orientation arising from overcoming these barriers would be invaluable to the action and execution mode. Similarly, this is the mode that I’ve got to take up in dealings with other stakeholders. Witness the effect of explaining why “Gemuk” moniker is unacceptable. The little time invested into explaining the situation has caused a complete drying up of a simple unwanted behaviour amongst my first three boisterous children. Subhanallah for Allah’s creations, and for His ordering of the universe, and for His sending of the Prophet to teach us the simple, most effective ways of dealing with people.

2.       Execution mode – listing, reminders, task, productivity tools on the Berry are useful complementarities to Task-orientation. Make sure I’ve got this covered, and may Allah continue to bestow the ease with which to continue doing this.

3.       BHAGs – property in Damansara area, opening up of Islamic school in Damansara, driving a 5-series, masterplanner of agri land for recreation, rehab and commercial agri, large funder of  worthwhile causes – the Magic of Thinking Big to drive motivation. And why not me? I’ve had experience in project delivery – dealing with DBKL,other agencies, private developers, consulting – selling ideas, creating spin, masterplanning, managing resources, objective-centred activities though results may have fallen short in some ways, investment – financial management, due diligence, investment evaluation, and in many ways, quite well-placed to bring critical, overwhelming leveraged results from important endeavours, insyaAllah.

4.       On item 3, the World Cup is a wonderful eye-opener. England, Italy, Germany, Spain are unsure of their place in Round 2, though I believe they will all still qualify (unlike France), and South & North Korea and Japan are still in with a shout (tho I believe only the first will make it). It just goes to show that money isn’t everything, and heart and determination is a more important factor. I’d have to decide which I should have more of. This is now my biggest crossroads since 2002 when I thought that TNB will not be my long-term career choice. The (mini)-pilgrimage effects are still felt.

5.       and that brings me to yesterday’s Ikram launch. The opportunities are there. The battle lines are slowly being drawn. But perhaps the capabilities are more of the same? The question is, how can I be the catalyst to drive this, and myself, upward?

 

 

 

Rational actions, driven by spiritual and emotional equilibrium

1.       Note that it isn’t easy to be a leader, the “Menang” dimension. Engaging with emotion is a flawed process, where opposing views could only be rationalised and harmonised with great difficulty, if at all.

2.       There are remarks that Malays are an emotional lot, and that comes from not having the wherewithal to decide. This stems from uncertainty from aligning outcomes, fragmented methodologies unable to build concensus and buy-in, and inferior information and knowledge as inputs to form opinion. Without these thinking capabilities, rationalism is lost, and emotions and shouting takes precedence. Or in religiousity, we just follow whoever shouts the loudest, appears as the most knowledgeable and have a more religious outlook, or even, in the case of liberalist interpretation of Islam, a legalistic argument in favour of reforms and all appear very attractive. The other option is to be apathetic and follow the “truth” spouted out by Government. In Tun M’s time, as he had the capacity to use all media machinery, the latter was pretty much the typical position of the masses. But when Pak Lah, who had the good intentions for openness without the guts to control and mediate, the diffusion of ideas spread and anarchy takes root. In Najib’s case, borrowing Bakri Musa’s description of a leader who follows, there is no real guidance and leadership on issues.

3.       I guess the stand to teach people to think may have substance, but it wont be a core component of Menang for leadership of issues and opinions. In the short run, emotional leadership still takes precedence. So, positioning of issues is still important and requires good R&D, good access to corridors of power, and the smarts to use national media when required.

4.       First and foremost, lessons learned from the diplomatic antagonisms post-Mavi Marmara, is that we should be flexible in many instances, including strategic options. The only unchangeable, should be a broadly-defined purpose, objective to be achieved. In the process, the balancing of multiple ideas, even opposing ideas, should be entertained. The final decision, ijtihad, is one after taking into account all manner of outcomes, implications et al, and we hope we gain the benefit and barakah from Allah for the effort we put in to come up to the right decision, for our sake and for Islam’s benefit.

 

 

Fallout continues

1.       It is now 4 days after the bloody massacre on the Mavi Marmara. Things have played itself out it seems, and on many points in the short-term, there have been a few successes and a few themes are generally coming to the fore.

2.       Egypt has reopened the Rafa border, the detainees have been released except for a few more, and Turkey seems to have developed a more prominent role amongst the muslim world. The latter isn’t a bad thing given Erdogan’s outspokenness, particularly after his walkout to the Israel-biased Davos forum a couple of years back. Erdogan, when compared to other Arab leaders silent on the world stage, is head and shoulders above them in terms of stature and diplomacy. Perhaps, given the constraints of the military-backed Kemalism in Turkey, Erbakan and Erdogan have both over time developed this ability of pinpointing and executing specific objectives that promotes the Islamist agenda while still appearing to play Western-style diplomacy. Other leaders, Najib, Anwar, Nik Nazmi(?), please take note.

3.       The themes which will recur and play itself out in the coming years are Turkish-Israel relations, US pressure on Iran, and European support for Israel. On a few of these, public opinion has successfully gravitated against Israel and exposed their inhumane treatment of Palestinian refugees in Gaza. And if they were to respond in the familiar playground bully defense, that this is necessary for their security and defense, it will be pointed out that they are the aggressors in hostilities when driving out Palestinians from their homes.

4.       Back to the key point though. These are all early days yet. Since An-Nakba, there have been many occasions such as these and each time, Israel has thwarted them all off in the long run using their manipulating media and coordinated diplomatic networks of support amongst the developed countries. There is no evidence yet that this will change. Palestinians will still have to wait a while to return home, unless public opinion on the fate of Gaza becomes central to elections in the developed countries.

5.       What will happen though is the loosening of support to Israel. They don’t deserve any, if the blood of the dead in Mavi Marmara, Rachel Corrie, Lord Moyne, the UN-appointed Swedish mediator in 1948, are added to the daily killings and massacres of Sabra, Shatilla, Rafah, Gaza and Palestine are totaled up. Europe is the first to wake up, in that they won’t owe Israel that much no matter how long the Holocaust will be raised as collateral by the conniving liars.

6.       Dear Allah, Please let us see curses rain down upon Israel and their conniving liars, let there be sufficient recompense for their brutality, let them be humiliated and destroyed for their arrogant actions, and destroy them in this earth while they still commit these injustices in Palestine while sowing discord and confusion in the rest of the world through their lies. Ya Allah, let me see the day when the Palestinians will return to their rightful homes.