Civil but not servant-like

Someone sent me a crisp write-up which captures my spirit and heart about what traditional public services had become. We have been reduced to the lowest common denominator allowable.

Therefore, as I watch “the PKFZ court case real-time movie” unfold before our very eyes, it has all the makings of the ‘Yes, Minister’ series but with the meaning exactly in reverse.

In our Boleh-land version, the public servant usually gets screwed up, while the minister and political system appear to remain beyond reproach.

As a result of the 22-year reign of the former prime minister, the public services in Malaysia has been cowed into ‘blind compliance syndrome’ on many matters related to good governance.

Public servants are scant to give their honest and true opinions! One does not need to go far to recognise this phenomena.

Simply buy a copy and read the latest Auditor-General’s 2010 Report. How can so much abuse of public funds become repeated every year and no one is seriously outraged.

I suppose it all began with the abuse of the judiciary, and ‘the story of then-Lord President Salleh Abas.’ It was an “unfair and unjust dismissal from the judiciary.”

Thankfully, the same government had the moral audacity to pay compensation to him and all other related judges who were ‘victims’ of the abuse.

In life truth does matter; it must matter, unless we are inhuman beings! In the animal kingdom truth is defined when the bigger beats up the lesser.

That is the law of the jungle! But, can we afford the same value system for humankind, and the kingdoms ruled by other men?

Supremacy of the British Empire

Neither can we allow kings alone to reign supreme! What and who then is truly supreme today? There was a time when the empire was supreme. The British Empire and their consequent supremacy, helped define and birth the Federation of Malaya, and independence.

By that same strategic design and intent, we were also drummed down into ethnic or race-based groups and communities. But then the empire could define all things; including perceptual reality.

The Internet-worked world of today has changed such reality. The world today is indeed flat! How else could Steve Jobs ( right ) lead his Apple dream team into conquering the world and cornering it with iPads and iPhones?

Actually his emerging story is far from over… we need to watch and see how others react and respond to his strategic interventions.

That internet-worked world, to my mind, is defined by three enduring values. First, is the ‘Internet’ and all that comes with Internet and technology convergence of the 3G and 4G kinds.

The Internet was originally designed by the US army engineers to be “uncontrollable!” Therefore, unless one has the capabilities to reverse reengineer the entire thought process; one is better off learning to enjoy and using the technology positively.

Second, it is about ‘networks’. This network is first of all electrical and electronic. It can now transmit pictures, words, and sound of the 3G or 4G variety.

Most importantly, it has transported mankind from the smoke signal age into the virtual reality age of internet clouds; where everyone is only but a phone call away! In essence networks can now communicate in more ways than ever imagined before.

Integral to all this “transformation” is fundamentally a new kind of community development without external controls or moderation.

Finally, the third compound word, ‘work’ is to me the most important for the internet-worked world. Work is purposeful activity of humankind to seek and realise teleological existence and to define and identify the meaning and significance in life.

This last word and her human internalisation give meaning and significance to both the medium and the message. Most times the medium is therefore also the message.

With the above as the context of my text, allow me to now review the Howard Zinn ( left ) quote sent to me by a good friend, who is part and parcel of my community for development.

“You are saying our problem is civil disobedience, but that is not our problem.

“Our problem is civil obedience.

“Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience.

“Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty.

“Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.

“That’s our problem.”

The words resonate with me and my public service experience that I sent them to all my larger connected community.

‘You ain’t seen nothing yet!’

My additional words were: Civil but now servant-like. It was a personal retort and response that, in the language of my teacher, Jerry B Harvey, not everyone can and will take this “trip of Abilene!”

There is a saying that you can fool some people some of the time, but that you cannot fool all the people all the time!

Therefore, neither civil society nor I believe the public services, is going to tolerate passive civil obedience anymore.  As is becoming visible in all of the Middle East or even in Russia, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

What is more likely is even more cool and calm civil disobedience of the Gandhi and/or the Martin Luther King kinds! And, one can assume that they all do sing quietly in their hearts the song, “ We shall overcome… one day, some day! ” That was the great negro spiritual which set the stage for the greatest mental revolution of all times!

For servants to exist, one needs masters! The moot question today is who are the “new masters” replacing “the empire or her proxies?”

The serious and object truth today is that tomorrow’s leaders are not masters but servants of the people. Anyone who wants the privilege of “leading today” must first learn to serve. There is no leadership without servant-hood today.

Authority and power alone cannot define truth matters, as the ministry of science, technology and innovation will soon find out! The computing Bill does not compute! We must kill that Bill as much as we must kill the Peaceful Assembly Bill. They do not compute with the new genre of the world!

Malaysia is at a leadership crossroads. The leaders of tomorrow are not “those with power and authority today” but really those who learn to serve and meet the needs of the ordinary and simple people.

Both Selangor and Penang have set good examples for the other states and the federal government. Tomorrow’s leaders are today’s servants.

The need to learn to ask the right questions, not simply pronounce unthought through half-baked solutions as if they are now looking for a problem!

Unless all Malaysians, ordinary ones and sophisticated ones, learn to assume responsibilities for their own lives and begin to take charge of their own circumstances, and seek to become local actors for their own environments, we will see the abuse of power and authority and we will continue to believe that “we live in an illusion of hopelessness”.

As Alvin Ung writes from his study of barefoot leaders, each citizen must begin to believe that his life matters and that he can live out a purposeful life which can give meaning and significance to others.

Then each of us can become civil but not servant-like. May God bless Malaysia.