A mature developed society (Pt 2)

Many years ago, under the Demonstrator Applications Grants (DAGs) programme, we at the NITC funded an ‘electronic processing and approval of building plans project’ as a pilot to demonstrate the virtual delivery capabilities of the ICT technology.

The project was an absolute success with the reduction of the e-processing of building plans from a span of about 300+ days to about 23 days during the pilot run.

The project team was then invited to repeat the process in the Petaling Jaya City Council. Just before the contract was signed, the exco member for ICT asked for a more comprehensive 12-local authorities submission with a full-blown business plan. That too was done.

After much internal negotiations, the full proposal was approved by the state exco led by that Toyo-fellow and his clowns.

It is now 15 months after the same team of social entrepreneurs approached the so-called new state exco member and requested the full and integrated roll-out of the same one-stop rapid processing project to all 15 local authorities. We even offered a totally different and upgraded business model at a transparent and open RFP bid of a token RM1.  

The appointment was arranged for me by a bright-spark MP who had received DAGs funds from the NITC.  But, alas, the Toyo-features are not the unique value curse of only Umno! After two Pakatan Rakyat StandCo Meetings and a lot of talk-shop, no action seems to be coming out of our project roll-out.

Instead I hear about DAP politics to throw out the more efficient and transparent but less political councillors to be replaced by even more political types. Please see a Sun column on the same issues by Terence Fernandez, with whom I agree with 100 percent.

The political types are always interested in feathering their own nests for political mileage and patronage. It is the public interest that is always denied by their less than wholesome worldview or mindset.

In my mind and heart, the jury is still out on whether Selangor is one or will ever become a developed state.

Some of the current goings-on involve weak leadership, poor party discipline, the stealing of sand, crook-like CEOs heading state agencies, the close-one-eye culture, theft vide advertising agendas, and blind adherence to party loyalty above truth.

We, the people, will have to wait 24 months to choose as new leaders of the state. We may need to grow civil society as a third party interest option and then offer ourselves as honest brokers for good governance. The rakyat deserves at least a real and honest option.

We must remain focused on the real agenda of development. Development must serve the largest need for the greatest good. It cannot be material progress of unqualified interests of big business and capitalists. Such a worldview sees everything in material terms and every opportunity for project development in rent-seeking behavior through greedy proposals.

SH Nasr in his book on ‘Man and Nature’ argues that the modern outlook or mindset of seeing oneself and self interest as No 1 and putting the ‘other’ as secondary is ‘a spiritual crisis of modern man’. That is also the subtitle of the book. Nasr speaks at least six languages and knows what he is talking about. He is also an astute student of all worldviews and religious systems of thought.

Theory R

What then is an integrated system of human development with integrity?  First, such a thought system can be called Theory R in my pet language.

Theory R is about 7 Rs, the first of which is Right. If we do not start with this cornerstone axiom of any argument, we cannot build a solid and good theory and especially a non-material one. What is right or wrong starts with who or what is our ultimate authority.

Let me therefore start here for Theory R. All authority belongs to God Almighty. Therefore He is the ultimate authority on all matters of life, regardless of what we mean by those words. Once we can agree that Theory R starts with an absolute axiom we call God, all other Rs spill out of this cornerstone position.

The second R is Responsibility. When one knows what is right, one has no choice but to find the political will and ability to respond to that truth. This ability of choice, to choose to be responsible for the truth we do know or understand is called ‘responsibility’.

We can also abdicate responsibility, as with the attitude which abandons children whom we cause to be born, even if we later regret our action. Such actions are absolutely irresponsible and no excuse is good enough.

Once we can establish responsibility for actions of a political nature which are quite intentional, we can move towards the next R which is Roles Assumption.

Former minister Rafidah Aziz used to say, we cannot memainkan peranan (play a role) but that we must always memikul tanggungjawab (bear responsibility). That is a good definition of role assumption.  

One has to assume responsibility for the roles one chooses to play, including the chance of impregnating someone’s daughter through illicit sex. Abandoning one’s responsibility after the act involves absolute and total guilt of the role of both parties, except in the proven case of rape.

As I develop my model of an integrated and wholesome development model, my question to political leaders of all parties worldwide is: ‘Who is the real authority in your life?’

If you claim it is God Almighty, then assume roles that reflect that clarity of conscience in all that you say and do. For that is the beginning of the definition of being integrated with integrity. When there is a gap between what you espouse and what you do, an integrity gap results.