September 20, 2014
Further Reflections on Leadership
by Dato’ Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid@www.nst.com.my
THERE are always turning points in individual lives and in the lives of nations. Malaysia is an unfinished work in nation-building and is now at a turning point. History is about continuities and discontinuities with forces of good and bad at work.
What is so often repeated must again be noted in the quote by Edmund Burke, an Irish statesman and British parliamentarian: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
We have many good leaders of substance in all spheres. They tend to be humble and practical, not wanting to be involved in the contest for personal power or egotistical battles.This very humility has led to a situation where outspoken, lesser leaders have hijacked the leadership in public as well as private domains.
At stake are the minds, mindset, spirits and souls of the future generation of Malaysians. With arrogant impunity, so many lesser leaders are taking the vision of nation-building away from great visionary leaders.
With what ideas of nation-building, or nation destruction, and with what xenophobic or universal values are the minds and souls of future generations to be furnished? Left to lesser leaders, we can already draw a compendium of discontinuity on nation-building efforts that we have known for six decades or so. Left to leaders with a touch of greatness, there is still hope for millions of our citizens who want to live in peace, mutual respect and dignity.
There are evil leaders in human history, cultures and civilisations. There is no reason to believe that evil leaders do not exist now. There are evil leaders in the making in our midst.We just have to examine their intentions, articulations, reasoning and actions to know whether they are champions of virtues or evil intentions towards others who are different from them, or, those whom they define as their enemies.
Evil leaders want the following:
THEY want to change society radically;
THEY use ideology, race, religion and language;
THEY have obsequious circles of followers;
THERE is disdain of law and order, but they create their own codes and “laws”;
THEY do not respect others;
THEY are racists, bigoted, extremists or simply sick;
THEY have psychological problems and may be misogynic;
THEY suffer miseducation and are ignorant in significant ways;
THEY can be myopic or with megalomaniac ambitions; and
THEY do not really accept divine teachings.
Pacifists excuse the plans and provocations of evil people by arguing that they are misguided.Eventually, the consequences of evil acts are that the lives of individuals, families and communities are destroyed in the name of some ideology or belief. Such “misguided” actions by the Ku Klux Klan and others for ethnic or religious cleansing can then be excused.
It is a paradox that as more and more people have education and freedom of expression, more and more people will emerge as toxic leaders with the potential to do evil when they have power and opportunity to oppress others.
Society has the responsibility to provide the young with examples of good role models, who are revered not only by their own communities, but also by people from different societies. This may not only be current, but also in history.
When Nelson Mandela died, the world mourned. When Mahatma Gandhi and John F. Kennedy were assassinated, the world empathised; when Mao Tze Tung and Ho Chi Minh were gone, people honoured them.However, except for a close circle of followers over the years, who has mourned Adolf Hitler, Ku Klux Klan leaders, Pol Pot and others who were involved in ethnic cleansing, ideological purgatory and religious persecution?
It is time that the media projects a kinder, gentler Malaysia, with credible people who love their children and care for their neighbours’ children; who practise the true teachings of religion; who learn the best of lessons about humanity in schools and the marketplace; and cherish the positive values of sacrifice, humility, magnanimity, respect, truthfulness, piety, justice, peace, equality, freedom and beauty.
Politics and political manipulation, or inertia, will continue to play the decisive tipping-point role. However, civil society, communities, families and parents can share with the young their knowledge and experience of “good people” with integrity from among family and community members, as opposed to those who are corrupt in ambition and in ways and means of achieving self-interest and egotistical journeys.
Society has a responsibility towards the successive generations to sensitise them to the realities of various kinds of leaders, including good as well as toxic and evil leaders.
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
People seeking to hold positions of leadership must subject themselves to some form of “shrink test”. Otherwise, we will have problems.–Din Merican
WHY DAP FALL INTO THE EVIL LEADERS
CATEGORY
THEY want to change society radically; TO CHINESE RULE AS CPM TRIED LAST TIME
THEY use ideology, race, religion and language; CHINESE AND CHRISTIANITY
THEY have obsequious circles of followers; SURE CHINESE MAJORITY AND SOME NON CHINESE WHO SUPPORT CHINESE AGENDA
THERE is disdain of law and order, but they create their own codes and “laws”; PPS IN PENANG AS A GOOD EXAMPLE AND THE SUPPORT TO SECESSIONIST IN EAST MALAYSIA
THEY do not respect others; HANS CHINESE DAP WILL RESPECT NOBODY
THEY are racists, bigoted, extremists or simply sick;
CHINESE CHAUVINISTIC
THEY have psychological problems and may be misogynic; THEY CONTROL THE ECONOMY BUT HAVING PSYCHO PROBLEM OF BEING 2ND CLASS CITIZEN
THEY suffer miseducation and are ignorant in significant ways; BECAUSE SINCE YOUNG COCOON IN SJKC
THEY can be myopic or with megalomaniac ambitions; and…VERY TRUE
THEY do not really accept divine teachings…ACCEPT ONLY CHRISTIANITY…ISLAM AS EXTREMIST AND BIGOT
Every time when I visit your country I do not see progress. I see chaos and backward development.
The decades of narrow, divisive and damaging politics of race, religion, intolerance and hate by some Malay/Muslim ‘ leaders’ and career politicians had done a lot of permanent and long term damage to the Malay/Muslim community.
Corrupt leadership and toxic political environment had caused serious mental illness. Many are affected but do not know realise it…..causing serious harm to themselves, family and society.
One cannot be at peace with oneself if one is constantly filled with hate, anger, prejudice, insecurity, intolerance and etc…..May Peace Be Upon You.
Dato
Malaysia’s dilemma is not leadership. Its lack of leadership and in the kingdom of the blind the one-eye jack is the king.
Evil Leaders?
A muse asks:
What is Evil? Who is Good? ‘Divine teachings’ – what on earth is that?
So, What is Truth (Quid est veritas)?
Actually what this writer references to as the characteristics of an ‘Evil Leader’ has more to do with a Cult Leader. Was there a preceding article on what good Leadership is or should be?
A ‘shrink’ test will not help – because about 70% of leaders basically suffer fro sociopathic, histrionic or narcissistic character deficiencies. Angela Merkel and Queen E doesn’t.
Ya, another evil leader is Shinzo Abe who has honored and visited the Asian war criminals (allied with Adolf Hitler) in Yasukuni which glorifies its inglorious past and reverting to its history’s infamy!
May I share the sources and views by Bunn Nagara a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia…
http://rightwaysrichard.blogspot.com/2014/03/japan-reverting-to-its-historys-infamy.html
http://rightwaysrichard.blogspot.com/2013/12/abes-visits-to-yasukuni-glorifying.html
http://rightwaysrichard.blogspot.com/2013/12/yasukuni-glorifies-japans-inglorious.html
There is no hope for any country where political power equals immense wealth for oneself, one’s family and cronies, especially where such power is deviously obtained through racial and religious bigotry because in order to maintain your hold on power, (and which politician don’t want to?), you need to keep ratcheting up the bigotry.
Majid,
Ok, Kamsiah Faekah is a chinese? Christianity = Communism? Law and Order………Just as how present Selangor sultan choose his MB. Ghazali Jawi must be a super melayu when he had given middle finger to Sultan Idris II of Perak. Ask Tok Cik. Ghazali Jawi was shuffed into sultan’s mouth even though the Sultan disliked the man. Ok, UMNO is more powderful than Allah……..To be continued
Dr Majid
Please enlighten us what do you mean that DAP are the evil organization. Please don’t write one line comment accusing others without concrete proof.
I am one of many DAP supporter that want clean government. As an ethnic Chinese, we don’t give a damn of political power. We just want MALAY control government that fight crime rates, improve education system and policies, improve quality of tertiary institute, fixed our stagnant economy, build more affordable housing for the middle and lower income Malaysian, reduce corruption, improve the well being of the policemen and women, etc. That is why we voted for Pakatan! Chinese like me pin a lot of hope on PAS but Ulama and Youth wing of PAS disappointed us.
Please do not easily assumed DAP is a racist party and associate the political party with ethnic Chinese. You clearly want to stoke racial hatred towards the Chinese. It is people like you that cause Malaysia to fail.
My only hope is there are more Malay like DIN. We people like them to lead.
Salam
Who can we hope to lead this country? I felt hopeless for Malaysia future after PAS Muktamar. It clearly showed that PAS youth supported terrorist ideology like ISIS. How can minority like me trust them to government a multiracial and religious party? We cannot depend on PAS unless the progressive group is able to purge these extremist. Where can we find a Malay leader to lead Malaysia? Actually, PAS youth makes Khairy acceptable.
Is third force our force our future?
Itu sebab nya ISA dan Akta Hasutan tidak boleh di mansuh kan, kerana perbuatan-perbuatan saperti ” Api Dalam Serkam ” di suatu pihak, dan di-pihak suatu lagi secara Crude : religious and racial Bigotry……
Betul lah saperti Penulis yang menyoal : Whither goes Malaysia ?
Mr Teck
You may find these interesting (from the Aust Psych Assoc):
Theories of racism
A variety of explanations for prejudice and racism have been advanced by social psychologists throughout the last 100 years. The prevalence of particular kinds of explanations has shifted during this time depending on wider historical and social factors and the dominance of specific paradigmatic frameworks within the discipline. Four current approaches to racism are described briefly below: personality theories; social cognitive models; intergroup theories; and critical psychological approaches.
Personality theories
Freudian psychodynamic accounts of prejudice and racism were prevalent between 1930 and 1960 and located the causes of prejudice in the intra-psychic unconscious conflicts of the person. The most influential of these was The Authoritarian Personality by Adorno et al. (1950). As with much of social psychology in the post-war period, the notion of an authoritarian personality attempted to account for the widespread support for fascism in Nazi Germany and in particular the atrocities associated with the Holocaust. Adorno et al. argued that parent-child relationships with severe and punitive parental discipline produced children with an authoritarian personality. This personality was characterised by: a rigid adherence to conventional social values; an unquestioning subservience to one’s superiors; and a hostile rejection of those who violate conventional social values and mores.
Despite the extensive use of the F-scale to measure authoritarianism, by the 1960s the notion of an authoritarian personality began to wane but was revived in 1981 with Altemeyer’s theory of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Unlike Adorno et al., Altemeyer theorised RWA as an individual personality characteristic that was predominantly shaped by social learning experiences. Altmeyer therefore shifted the focus away from unconscious psychological conflicts to socialisation practices that shaped and conditioned authoritarianism.
The most recent personality approach to prejudice is that of social dominance orientation or SDO (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001). SDO is purported to be a stable individual difference that refers to a person’s level of support for group-based hierarchies in society, such as racial/ethnic, gender and socioeconomic hierarchies. Like RWA, SDO is strongly correlated with prejudice. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of SDO is the claim that group-based hierarchies and the legitimating beliefs that support them have an evolutionary basis. Like social cognition models (see below) the implication is that out-group prejudice is inherent in our human nature and is therefore an inevitable feature of most societies.
Social cognitive theories
Since the 1980s, social cognitive models have remained the most dominant and influential accounts of racial bias. These have their origins in Gordon Allport’s seminal work, The Nature of Prejudice (1954). Allport’s definition of prejudice as “an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization” (1954, p. 9) about a social group and its members, emphasises the role that social categorisation and stereotyping play as perceptual-cognitive processes that underlie racial bias.
Categorising people into their respective group memberships (such as race, gender, age) is seen to be driven primarily by our limited cognitive capacity and thereby our need to simplify the overwhelming amount of stimulus information we receive and need to process quickly and efficiently. This group-based or category-based perception is seen as distorting reality because people are not viewed as individuals in their own right but rather as prototypical group members. In turn, this leads to stereotyping, which recent social cognition research suggests can occur automatically and outside conscious awareness (Nosek, Hawkins & Frazier 2011). Stereotyping of course is just one step away from prejudice – literally pre-judging someone based solely on their group membership. This inextricable relationship between categorisation, stereotyping and prejudice therefore is central to social cognition models of prejudice.
Social cognition models have been criticised for normalising prejudice and racism as inevitable products of our cognitive hard-wiring. Critics have also argued that by treating racial categories and racial categorisation as natural rather than social and ideological constructs, social cognition models themselves reproduce subtle and implicit racism in psychology (Hopkins, Levine & Reicher, 1997).
Intergroup theories
Intergroup approaches to racism in social psychology, such as realistic group conflict theory (RCT) and social identity theory (SIT), emphasise the role that relations of power and dominance between different social groups play in determining patterns of intergroup hostility. As the name suggests, RCT views intergroup hostility as arising from competition between social groups for economic, social and cultural resources, that is, from ‘real’ group-based interests. During times of economic hardship when unemployment and competition for resources is high, intergroup hostilities are more likely to occur. Moreover, it is particularly during such times when intergroup tensions can be exploited politically and when scapegoating particular groups for social problems is most likely to take place.
We know however, that intergroup hostility and conflict can occur in the absence of competition for scarce resources. SIT sheds light on how varying patterns of intergroup discrimination and prejudice are generated during different social and political conditions, by emphasising the psychological significance of perceiving oneself as a group member (social categorisation) and the motivation to differentiate one’s in-group positively from other groups through social comparison (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Many psychologists have concluded erroneously from the minimal group experiments upon which SIT was built, that the mere categorisation of people into in-groups and out-groups is sufficient to trigger intergroup discrimination and prejudice. Although SIT stresses the psychological importance of intergroup differentiation, this does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with in-group enhancement and out-group derogation, though regrettably these are all too frequent occurrences. Groups can maintain a positive social identity without threatening the social identity of others.
SIT posits that groups and their members strive to achieve positive differentiation from other groups, in ways that are shaped by the nature of the intergroup context and on dimensions of importance to them. Sometimes those dimensions of importance emphasise tolerance, generosity and inclusiveness, but all too often these dimensions emphasise superiority, dominance and preserving in-group privilege (Ellemers & Haslam, 2012).
Critical psychological approaches
Critical psychological approaches have examined prejudice and racism as interactive and shared discursive practices that justify and legitimate relations of power, dominance and exploitation in both formal discourse, such as political rhetoric, and in everyday informal talk. This approach has identified how linguistic resources are combined flexibly to reproduce and justify racist outcomes in modern liberal democracies. In some instances, existing relations of power, dominance and privilege are maintained through overt racism. However, given the increasing opprobrium against the expression of such views, social inequalities are typically legitimated through the flexible and contradictory use of liberal egalitarian arguments that draw on principles such as freedom, individual rights and equality. Discursive studies locate these shared discursive practices or ‘ways of talking’ as products of an inequitable society rather than as individual psychological or cognitive products. The analytic site therefore is not the prejudiced or racist individual, but the discursive and linguistic resources that are available within a society structured by social inequalities (Wetherell & Potter, 1992).
Critical discursive research has also demonstrated the varied ways in which the category of racism is highly contested in everyday life to manage the moral accountability and identity of an individual or group. van Dijk (1992) documents the ubiquitous nature of denials of racism through the use of disclaimers such as “I’m not racist but …” or “I have nothing against migrants but …”. A large body of work has demonstrated how both formal and informal talk about issues pertaining to race, immigration and asylum seekers is strategically organised to deny prejudice and racism. Unlike traditional psychological research utilising quantitative methods, this qualitative approach insists on using naturalistic data that captures the ongoing nature of racism in everyday life (Augoustinos & Every, 2007).
These language practices are forms of power that are products of particular historical, hierarchical relationships between groups, in which some people have unjustly and unfoundedly claimed dominance over others. Understood as power relationships, racism shapes the lives of everyone within these hierarchies, both the oppressed and the oppressors. In this sense, ‘race’ is a form of categorisation that reflects particular forms of power relations between groups, rather than reflecting the actual attributes (whether physical or behavioural) of any particular group of people. Recent research on white privilege is another critical approach that is primarily concerned with how white people’s identities are shaped by broader institutionalised forms of racism, and brings to the fore both the benefits that the dominant majority accrue because of their privileged position in society and the responsibilities they have for addressing racism (Moreton-Robinson, 2004).
Sorry, previous article was from the Aust Psych Society
Here’s another article on racism and prejudice:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/handy-psychology-answers/201101/the-psychology-prejudice-and-racism
Wow Dr Majid, you sound like the BTN lecturer giving his daily dose of Malay brain washing, just by the words you use to describe everybody else who is not a Malay. It is easy to say something but you need to back it up with facts. If you say DAP is evil, why has it existed all these years. Why hasn’t the ROS deregister DAP.
You link DAP to CPM which by the way has been outlawed. So how come DAP has not been outlawed?
You say they use ideology, race, religion and language; CHINESE AND CHRISTIANITY. Is there any difference between them and PAS save the Malay and Islam? After all there is freedom of worship in Malaysia, maybe not in your books.
“THERE is disdain of law and order, but they create their own codes and “laws”; PPS IN PENANG AS A GOOD EXAMPLE AND THE SUPPORT TO SECESSIONIST IN EAST MALAYSIA” Prove it
THEY are racists, bigoted, extremists or simply sick;
CHINESE CHAUVINISTIC – very strong statements to make Dr. BTW is this Dr a MD or PhD? Usually PhD are known as Pengkhianat Hasat Dengki.
THEY have psychological problems and may be misogynic; THEY CONTROL THE ECONOMY BUT HAVING PSYCHO PROBLEM OF BEING 2ND CLASS CITIZEN
Wow, then they need to be sent to Tanjung Rambutan, the whole lot of them. Perhaps you don’t know the meaning of being 2nd class citizen.
I’d better end here before I pop a blood vessel just reading your comments. You have so much hate for humanity, so much poison and vitriol. Maybe you need to check yourself in at Tanjung Rambutan. My friend CLF will gladly refer you if you need one.
Naah.. Abnizar, dno need to depend on sedition and ISA which are basically archaic Colonial Laws which are used to hentam and extinguish criticisms of the establishment. Why you so colonial One?
The Chinapek, especially Christians, are more than capable of taking insults, threats, denigration and ‘otherness’ – but they will demand their peaceful pound of flesh when the time comes.. That’s actually what ‘turning the other cheek means’.
Here’s my ‘scared’ response as an infant, to the ‘good’ Dr Majid’s advisory, even though i’m no DAP party aficionado:
Dr Majid ,
Look, our famous former PM Dr Mahathir said:
Malays are lazy, dishonest and prefer to be Mat Rempit, Tun Dr Mahathir lamented!
Source: http://rightwaysrichard.blogspot.com/2014/09/malays-are-lazy-dishonest-and-prefer-to.html
Very frank for Malays to improve!
Orang malaya,
So what if you don’t believe it, there are so many stupid voters especially some melayus around.
CLF, I thought of not responding, but never mind for sake of ‘ ilmu ‘, we learn everybody learns….; the Brits left other beautiful laws too , and we use till now perhaps till end of ‘ Malaysia ‘ ?
Penal Code with about 500 Sections comprehensive to ‘run’ or administer a modern civil society. The two Civil & Criminal Proceedure Codes, in what is termed as per ‘ procedural justice & fairness ‘ – This I must tell the world : The EVIDENCE ACT consist of only 155 Sections to govern Court /proceedings & officials, that no rubbish is brought to Court , and if ‘relevant ‘ , must be substantiated with proof : Example , no ‘ gossip ‘ evidence like hearsay or prejudicial evidence….all that . But, these Sections are extremely well worded & defined in such a beautiful way, sublime, awesome, that we often wonder how such a little Act is so comp -rehensive, befitting of a civilisation like the ‘grandeur of the lost Atlantis’ which we read about – I hope we don’t lose all these laws left behind more than 67 years ago…..
Racism exist every where. I am not trying to defend DAP. The issue with DAP is not having enough Malay members. Hence, only limited Malay will be allow to be in the center committee. I am certain regardless of race the person with right credential will get to the top. In addition, with more Malay joining the political party, I am certain the view of Malay will be more well represented. So, if Malay believe in what DAP stand then they must join and ask more Malay to join. Only with more Malay joining DAP, the future of Malaysia will be brighter. Nobody deny Malay play a very important role in future of Malaysia.
Dr. Mahathier looks East means China, the origins of Japanese efficiency and disciplines in which Malaysian Chinese inherited from are good for Malays to emulate and learn.
So near yet so far?
Teck,
That is because UMNO has been extremely successful in sowing seeds that DAP is a chinese chauvinist party. UMNO has been defeated badly in Singapore melayu areas and hence UMNO is always fearful of DAP