Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Reluctant Politician



This book traces the life of the late Tun Dr.Ismail. For some, especially devout Muslims, there are certain aspects in the book which is rather distasteful which ought to be left out in this sort of biography. I shall not mention what these are ( I will leave it to the reader), and I too think that these aspects do not need mentioning because it might taint the image of this powerful political figure and it does not add anything to the book.

The jist of the book is to portray events surrounding the Tun's political ascendency and decisions that he made and his arguments as regards to various aspects of the formation of a new independent county and policies.

From these events we would learn a great deal just about what the man stood for and his principles.

I am most impressed by his unwavering sense of fairness and justice and his distaste for individuals lacking competence and discipline. I believe these qualities are missing in many politicians these days. His attitude reminds me of headmasters of previous years who were strict and feared by students; who stand by their unwavering sense of duty and discipline. These qualities are seriously lacking in today's world and we ought to urgently bring these back.

If we have more leaders such as the late Tun Dr.Ismail, our country would definitely be ahead of many Asian countries.

1 comment:

Dr. Yahya said...

I also agree this book is very interesting and that this man was clearly streaks ahead in his fairness and general all-around competence compared to many of today's politicians. In fact, Malaysia was extremely fortunate in the early years after independence with its leadership, so many other former colonies descended into corrupt oligarchies immediately after independence, one might cheekily argue this didn't happen in Malaysia until the 1980s! Just kidding, still Malaysia has never abandoned democracy to the extent of most of its neighbours at various stages of their recent histories.

I'm not sure I agree though about some things that shouldn't have been mentioned as you say. I'm generally in favour of hiding people's personal faults where they don't impact on their public duties, but I'm not sure TDI hid these things himself - he was from a different era where public displays of religiosity were unnecessary. In a sense, this is a good reason for keeping this information in as it shows that perhaps even people who are not religiously perfect - but still sincere - may be better Malaysian leaders provided they are not corrupt and act fairly (esp with justice to all races) than those who appear so holy religiously yet in the performance of their duties are incompetent, chauvinistic or just plain corrupt. Not naming names of course