Press Statement by Kelana Jaya Member of Parliament on 15 February 2011 at Kelana Jaya :
The Art of taking criticism: A Malaysian Case Study
In any given time and in any given nation, there are those who clamor to deliver praise to those in power. And then there are those who are in love with their own voices who clamor to deliver praise upon themselves. Left to their own devices the above mentioned create a delusion (to themselves
and whoever they can influence) of an existence in heavenly bliss. But unfortunately (for the above mentioned), they are (usually) not the only people around, and every now and then someone (not from the above mentioned) decides to say it as it is. Which every so often threaten to shatter the delusion
of heavenly bliss for those of the above mentioned. For the above mentioned, this simply will not do! And since in these cases the matter that threatens to shatter the above mentioned heavenly bliss is the truth and therefore extremely difficult to argue with using reason and logic, the above mentioned
will resort to “well” thought out arguments like “Mind your own business! Sod off!”, “You’re not my Dad! I don’t have to listen to you!”, “Oh ya? And you’re stupid and ugly!” and of course the brand new retort of “He is not a president or a former PM. Media should not pay attention to this kind of news”
Let us pause and think about that for a moment.
……….
I guess for some people (especially the one about you not being the President or Prime Minister), this sort of retort is the equivalent of the popular military tactic known as “Shock and Awe”. Well when I heard of the latest retort of “He is not a president or a former PM. Media should not pay attention to
this kind of news” I was certainly shocked and awed… by the sheer lack of logic. I suppose one could then accuse me of not being the President or Prime minister and therefore have no right to have anyone pay attention to my views. I suppose I could fight fire with fire and resort arguments such as “Mind
your own business! Sod off!”, “You’re not my Dad! I don’t have to listen to you!” , “Oh ya? And you’re stupid and ugly!” and again the brand new “You’re not a president or a former PM. We should not pay attention to this kind of news/views” but I’m not going to. Instead I will stake my claim to the right to comment on “Hey! Since when did you have to be President or Prime Minister to have your views paid attention to?”
Since most of us are not god, and therefore have a tendency to make mistakes. It should be deemed fortunate if there are those around us who are willing to step forward to inform us about the mistakes that we are making. By listening and paying heed to these constructive criticisms, advice and even
scolding will very often lead us back to the correct path and help us do the right thing. When the captain of the Titanic remarked “You’re not a president or a former PM. We should not pay attention to this kind of view” towards the person pointing out to him about the iceberg the Titanic appeared to be
heading towards, it resulted in all sorts of problems not only for the Captain, but also the thousands of passengers of the Titanic. I mean let us be practical here, what are the chances of the President or Prime Minister being there every time a ship is headed towards an iceberg? Wouldn’t iceberg avoidance
therefore be almost impossible?
Therefore we should be thankful that although most people are not Presidents and Prime Ministers, but they are those who care enough about us that they tell us our mistakes. Care enough about us to tell us where we went wrong in hope that we can change our course and avoid our icebergs.
There is a Chinese saying, which roughly translates to “those who criticize are those who care”. And those who are unaffected by our mistakes (i.e. former US Ambassadors to Malaysia towards the declining fortunes of Malaysia) but take the time to criticize constructively about our errors, therefore really care a lot. Wisdom dictates that such persons should be treasured. But I guess a person who can come up with awe inspiring arguments such as “He is not a president or a former PM. Media should not pay attention to this kind of news,” would not have wisdom rated as their most shining quality.
It is easy to disregard someone’s criticism on the basis that he/she is not the President or Prime Minister. But easy does not equal right. Ask friends who left our homeland for pastors aboard their reason for leaving, I have a feeling a significant percentage will cite reasons similar to those highlighted by the former Ambassador.
But regardless whether one agrees with the picture painted by the once US Ambassador to Malaysia. I suspect the argument that “He is not a president or a former PM. Media should not pay attention to this kind of news,” does Shock and Awe on more than one level. Firstly the argument does not appear
to offer any form of logical alternative view on the matter being discussed. And more significantly since the argument was presently by a Deputy Prime Minister, by the deputy prime minister’s own line of reasoning, therefore his own comments should also be ignored, since a Prime Minister/President does
not a deputy prime minister make (mistake here). So dear Deputy prime minister, on this occasion please forgive me for not being able to resist the urge to use the argument “You are not a president or a former PM. The people/media should not pay attention to this kind of view/news”. But then who knows, maybe “It was his views, irrational accusations. He is here still but he’s telling lies. Perhaps he is a good friend of Barisan, of Najib. So, he was spinning up stories,”. Hey you never know right?
Gwo-Burne Loh
Concerned citizen and Member of Parliament for Kelana Jaya, Not President or Prime Minister
Comments based on the report on
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=57420
In any given time and in any given nation, there are those who clamor to deliver praise to those in power. And then there are those who are in love with their own voices who clamor to deliver praise upon themselves. Left to their own devices the above mentioned create a delusion (to themselves and whoever they can influence) of an existence in heavenly bliss. But unfortunately (for the above mentioned), they are (usually) not the only people around, and every now and then someone (not from the above mentioned)
decides to say it as it is. Which every so often threaten to shatter the delusion of heavenly bliss for those of the above mentioned. For the above mentioned, this simply will not do! And since in these cases the matter that threatens to shatter the above mentioned heavenly bliss is the truth and therefore extremely difficult to argue with using reason and logic, the above mentioned will resort to “well” thought out arguments like “Mind your own business! Sod off!”, “You’re not my Dad! I don’t have to listen to you!”, “Oh ya? And you’re
stupid and ugly!” and of course the brand new retort of “He is not a president or a former PM. Media should not pay attention to this kind of news”
Let us pause and think about that for a moment.
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