1. Titled as above so as not to look like this is trying to rundown this little country, my country, our country. Granted that the following is a rant that probably needs a lot more thought in categorization and such.
2. Gradual decline of societal values, rise of violent crimes, petty crimes everywhere, porn vcds (pirated some more) available by the roadside, liberalism competing against rising extremism, murders most foul of a group, individuals, and helpless and weak babies. The list goes on.
3. Abdication of responsibilities by our political leaders allowing racism, inequalities and injustice to prosper for the sake of self-interest and extension of political might, leaving their constituencies (their amanah it must be said!) to lead in the fight for civil rights (GMI, etc), charity (Mercy Malaysia) and the media’s gross over-sensationalisation of poverty and suffering in favour of commercial benefits, overemphasis on rights and privileges over developing internal capacity and capabilities.
4. Increasing polarization arising from number 3 above.
5. Declining economic competitiveness. Forget the rankings, surveys and stuff. When a survey is constructed and aggregated at such macro-level it has no value to the human spirit of competitiveness and innovation. What matters is at the personal level, what is the output, contribution that can be expected from the individual. Looking at the outputs from our high-level academic institutes now, there can only be depression at the lack of apathy, inarticulate, lack of moral standards and such. Those who could escape such a damning environment find that in the work environment lack of role models amongst their superiors to teach simple character-building, strong, principle-centred mujahid dakwah, or at the very least, good mentors to lead. The system just fails to produce enough critical mass for nation-building and cohesive society building.
6. As a result of 5, bureaucrats, employees and the labour force turn to their survival instincts in the face of insufficient income levels to match with growing needs and demands and the various offerings available to the upper crust of society. Inflationary pressures by itself has created a need for the ‘proletariats’ to supplement their income stream with earnings from mlm and various other moon-lighting jobs (foot patch, score A, zhulian, stuff). Who can blame them?
7. A whole generation of Malays are just lazy fat cats rolling around waiting for their rights and privileges to fall from the sky. Perkasa is just so wrong, so wrong on so many levels. By extension, so is Tun M. His time has passed, and maybe he should be passing time, although some are saying he should be doing time. The present leadership should stand up, look him in the eye, say the above and politely ask Tun M to stand down. The other implication is to tell our children that nothing falls down from the sky if we don’t work for it. Let’s not blame our inabilities on the wrongs perpetrated by others, as we are responsible for our own fate. Allah will not burden us with things that we cannot bear.
8. Economic policies, subsidies etc. Yes, these are the rights of society upon the government, as this is the essence of Saidina Abu Bakr’s proclamation speech on his elevation as Khalifah, … speaking about the rights of the weak, the responsibilities of the strong, the essence of a democratically elected “representative” of a “popular” vote on the basis that he is the best to carry out the functions and purposes of a just, strong government… The Government should stop talking about the need to reduce subsidies and conduct an investigation into where the revenues coming from Petronas has gone to. At the end of the day, is there leakage and misallocation? How much? Where is it flowing to? How should the network of dependencies and patronage be decimated, or at the very least reconstructed so that merit prevails, and not patronages and corruption.
9. Restructuring of society, allowing for the flourishing of Islamic sciences and research, allowing for the creation and sustainance of a proper Islamic industry so that there are no undue concerns and fears of compromised halal-ness, be it for food or even for funding and financing. Allowing that Muslims and non-muslims, all Malaysians respect the cultures and traditions of religion, the ummatic principle, the rational and tolerant basis of religion and spirituality and not the rituals and fear-mongering of religious adherents. Agree with LKY on the percentages of new townships so that there are no longer Kepong or Cheras Baru, which are antiques and should be removed as such. To begin with the decimation of Chinese schools and the reconstruction of Chinese private schools with curriculum that emphasizes Malaysiana.
10. The reconstruction of education curriculum that emphasizes objectivity and respect. No such thing as a 5,000 year old civilization being superior to those which are newer and such. Base everything on the basis of scientific inquiry, rationalisation, curiosity, evidence-based, and infused with God-given spirituality to compensate for the limits and boundaries of scientific knowledge. Infuse national schools with learning of scriptures, hafazan, and deen-based knowledge as the overarching philosophy that binds all bodies of knowledge at a philosophical, pedagogical level that leads to the above.
11. Priorities, priorities. Leadership needs to take stock of all these weaknesses. Leadership needs to understand the destination of leading society. At a lower level, middle managers, executives need to understand the big picture. We all have a role to play in this.
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