\’Truth. Honesty. Respect. Just Values.\’ So reads the advertorial along the Federal Highway in the Klang Valley. This is the slogan of an international bank which began operations in Malaysia recently.

It presumably is a statement about who they are and what they stand for in terms of quality of service. It must also represent their organisational values and philosophy of life. Now, would I bank with them?

Surely, if I believe that their espoused theory and their theory-in-use are one and the same – in short, if they will do what they say. That is integrity.

There is another bank in Malaysia, which some time ago had another equally catchy tagline: \’the world\’s local bank\’. Again, if I thought they practise what they preach, I would bank with them. Being both global and local is a great challenge; not many can do both and do it well.

So, if they can meet my needs beyond the claims and promises, from a systems and organisational delivery viewpoint at the level of customer needs, I would bank with them.

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In management and marketing literature, this skill is called mass-customisation: the ability to create a global standard product but which is truly local at the same time. That is always a great challenge.

We had one such Malaysian product in the person of the late Syed Hussein Alatas ( photo ), who, in the words of Perak Regent Raja Nazrin Shah, was \”a world class scholar, a devout Muslim, a committed multi-racialist, and a true and loyal Malaysian\”.

He represented truth, honesty, respect – all just values. He was both global and local to the core.

Five traits

At the Albukhary Lecture series held recently on Syed Hussein\’s legacy, his son Syed Farid Alatas and professor of sociology in Singapore concluded about his father: \”I feel that throughout his intellectual life, my father lived in fear of our society being taken over by the \’bebalians\’ or the fools.

\”Among the traits of fools is the inability to recognise a problem; solve a problem if told to him; learn what is required; learn the art of learning; and admit that he is a fool.\”

Then the professor quoted at length from the book his father wrote: \”Once the fools come to power, they perpetuate their own breed. With the fools come nepotism, provincialism, parochial party politics, to condition selection and ascent in the hierarchy of administrative power.

\”Fools cannot cope with a situation where merit and hard work are the criteria of success, and so corruption is the hallmark of the rise to power of the fools, making a farce of Government tenders and leading to bureaucratic intrigues to gain office or promotion. Where fools dominate, it is their values which become society\’s values, their consciousness which becomes society\’s consciousness.\”

Syed Farid concluded: \”Such is the context within which our society\’s sense of morality decays. Does our society have the leadership of sufficient integrity, resolve and bravery to combat the ideals of destruction? If there is one question that SH Alatas left for us to answer it is that.\”

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Raja Nazrin also gave the inaugural lecture on the topic: \’Towards a Decent Social Order for all Malaysians\’ in memory of the legacy left for us by Alatas.

Speaking about the man, he said: \”Perhaps Alatas\’ most important and enduring legacy for a decent social order for all Malaysians – one that underscores the five points I have mentioned – is his insistence on values and morality as a basis for public discourse and action. Without these, development will not lead to social uplifting of all Malaysians. Instead it will result in rampant corruption and perilous social inequity.\”

Allow me to reflect on the government\’s integrity programme in the light of the legacy of the late SH Hussein. Islam Hadhari aside, with more mosques, churches and temples being built or even demolished at will, my question and concern is about where our morality and values are headed in tackling the sociology of corruption?

Frankly, the integrity programme sounds very empty and appears to have only the value of slogans in the light of Syed Hussein\’s definition of fools.

Where are the courageous and brave ones in our midst; the intellectuals that the late Syed Hussein called for in developing countries? Why does it appear that only the fools are in control of the economy and governance of this country?

Maybe we all need to go back to the Syed Hussein classics and reflect and seek to answer the remaining question of his legacy.

May God guide this nation towards the good moral values advocated by the late scholar and a true Malaysian.