An academic exercise on blame

A friend, whose organisation almost got chopped recently by the Malaysia Baru new government, sent an interesting message.

Her message was refreshing and current. It was something we had delved into since our late teens and wrote of it in this blog many years ago.

It is purely an academic exercise but thought its worthy for pondering, thus shared it below:

I think it's important that we acknowledge and frame the issues that Malaysia faces. 

While the sense of outrage is absolutely natural, let's recognize that what happened here is a story as old as time.

A small group of people took control of the masses using race, religion and the umbrage of legitimacy to hold power.

They co-opted anyone and everyone who was willing to look the other way, in return for personal gain.

While UMNO may have been at the nexus of power, consider that they were only able to do this because of the collusion of all the other parties, who ostensibly, were fighting for their own groups.

Which brings me back to my earlier point. Men have been doing this to men for a long time.

First there was feudalism where the nobles enslaved commoners in an endless cycle of servitude.

Then came the church who propped up the rulers while building their own power base.

This is repeated throughout history from the middle east to Asia. Rajas, Caliphs, Emperors....

While conditions are better, today nothing has changed. The new emperors are today's capitalist. They are the real power. They dictate surreptitiously to governments what need to be done all so that the engine of profit chugs along. We are still their slaves.

So while the Felda farmers are being used in a crude and obvious way, the rest of us are also victims of the capitalist engine, albeit in a sophisticated fashion.

As such, perhaps it would be prudent for us to think about how we can change the narrative and prevent the men of money from total hegemony.

They are the true enemy........ Not the politicians.

Be it feudelism or democrasy or any other socio-politicsl structure and system, each has its limitations, constraints and on the positive side, advsntages and benefits.

Communism and Socialism attempted but failed to create that class-less and category-less society.

Those former and still politically structured Communist and Socialist countries are now embracing free enterprise i.e. capitalism.

Free enterprise comes with it competition and merit as the formal basis for success or the minimal of access to success.

Like any other social structure, the final determinant for an efficient and smooth process lies with human.

Such is human nature that there is bound to be those
with weakness for life's trapping to pursue for whatever it takes within the ambit of competition - fair or otherwise.

And, there is bound to be those individuals with weakness in character but with the ability to articulate and gather public support for their secretly guarded selfish cause.

Thus, all manners and versions of ethical causes will succumb to human nature and the draw of such individuals.

In the final analysis, maybe the answer and solution lies not in any ideological confine or sophisticated system of check and balance but within the inner self and consciousness of each and every individual.

Good structures and systems are necessary for an efficient working of society.

But it could be broken down by a snap of a finger by such misguided individuals and ill informed society. Something our friend realised it could happen.

In this highly spiritual month of Ramadhan (especially during the holiest last 10 days) and as Muslim, our solution ultimately lies with Allah.

The ideal solution to society may lies with each and every individual or for the case of a nation, each and every citizen returning to their spiritual guide.

What do you think?