The Anwar Administration At Mid Term: Passable But Not Laudatory

The Anwar Administration At Mid Term:  Passable But Not Laudatory

M. Bakri Musa

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s greatest challenge on assuming office was the crippling triad of entrenched corruption, weak institutions, and assertive Islamism.

The Administration showed early promise by cracking down on corruption. However, it ignored the other two. Excusable perhaps given that Anwar’s government was an unwieldy coalition, and with that, constraints in introducing bold policies as well as choice of talents. It could also be argued that tackling corruption would strengthen institutions. And strong institutions could then handle the extremist Islamists.

At mid-term the Anwar Administration is judged successful only if one were to apply the Italian criterion (notorious for coalition governments) and be generous. He survived his unwieldy coalition. Having UMNO and DAP under the same tent required adroit political skills. Also consider that between January 2018 to December 2022, mere five years, Malaysia had five Prime Ministers, the same number as during her first half-century. 

Malaysians had expected that the prison-tested and reformasi-inspired Anwar, despite his brutal political baptism by the ruthless Mahathir, to be well seasoned upon assuming office. This optimism was buttressed by his decade-long post-prison association with such august institutions as Oxford and Johns Hopkins.

Alas at mid-term Anwar has not only failed to address those three core critical issues but he is now enmeshed in an unnecessary self-inflicted internal problem. The loss of Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi is not readily remedied as Anwar had failed to attract significant new talents into his administration. As an unneeded distraction, he now has to defend himself in a sordid sex-related civil suit.

Mahathir during his brief second tenure succeeded in convicting Najib Razak and his wife. He did so by appointing outsiders as Attorney-General and prosecutors. Anwar should have done likewise.

Anwar now has a chance with the judiciary. Emulate Lee Kuan Yew who in 1990 picked Yong Pung How, an outsider with a law degree from Cambridge and vast private sector experience outside of law. By contrast, Malaysian judges are unidimensional.

A measure of Malaysian judges is their post-retirement standing. The first Chief Justice Tun Suffian excepted, most disappeared into oblivion. As for their performances while in office, there was the character who was married in Thailand and tried to conceal it. Most egregious was the Chief Justice who was at the other end of the phone with a defense attorney who uttered, “Correct, correct, correct!” Another was caught holidaying abroad with a member of the Bar. I wonder who picked up the tab.

Had Anwar picked an outsider as Attorney-General two Novembers ago, there would not have been the current flurries of high-profile DNAAs (Dismissal Not Amounting to an Acquittal).

Anwar had a chance recently to pick a new Anti-Corruption Chief but chose not to despite the incumbent seeming confused, mistaking fighting corruption as prolonged interrogations and investigations, as well as endless show-and-tell press conferences.

The Islamists too are becoming assertive with such trivialities as teachers’ dress codes. Far more serious was the recent introduction of Imam Nawawi’s Forty Hadith into schools. What is needed is more science and math. Had Forty Hadith been used not as endless recitations but as exercises in critical thinking, that would have been laudable.

Anwar’s political skills will see him through his full term if for nothing else than the alternatives being so mediocre. Therein lies the seductive trap. He should not even consider running for a second term, thus instilling in him a sense of urgency.

Emulate President Reagan; he treated his first term as if that was his only chance. No intellect, he attracted many bright talents into his Administration and was comfortable with them. Anwar should do likewise. Invigorate the highly-inbred insular civil service now inflicted with the seniority mindset with massive high-level lateral infusions of talents. That would disrupt the civil servants’ current “planes patiently lining up for landing slots” mentality.

Anwar is also the only leader with the standing to challenge the regressive Islamists and language nationalists. As such he does not need to humor them.

Anwar should be reminded that a leader’s effectiveness at home is inversely related to his exposure abroad. Few could name the head of Taiwan but everybody has heard of the corrupt incompetent Zelensky. Besides, at Anwar’s age the inevitable jet lags can be distracting.

A leader is not a populist or “pied piper.” Grooming a successor is another responsibility of a leader. Anwar’s daughter is now the party’s deputy leader and thus putative successor. It is worth remembering that the greatest tragedy in Islam, one that still reverberates today, occurred when Ali, the prophet’s cousin as well as son-in-law, became the fourth Caliph. Imagine if he had been the prophet’s son and became the first or second Caliph!

 

 

Berfikir nUtuk Mencipta Realiti Baru

 Berfikir Untuk Mencipta Realiti Baru

M. Bakri Musa

Petikan #15 daripada buku saya, Qur’an, Hadith, Dan Hikayat: Latihan Dalam Pemikiran Kritikal

Pendekatan ujian klinikal telah diguna oleh disiplin selain daripada perubatan, terutamanya ekonomi. Renungkan masalah pencapaian pendidikan yang rendah di kalangan pelajar miskin luar bandar. Mengapa tidak cuba beberapa cara untuk menolong mereka dan lepas itu kaji keputusannya?

Sepasang suami isteri ahli ekonomi MIT telah melakukan kajian tersebut dengan murid sekolah di Afrika. Satu kumpulan diberima makanan percuma di sekolah (seperti di Amerika); kumpulan kedua di beri wang tunai kepada ibu bapa untuk menghantar anak mereka ke sekolah (seperti Program Progressa di Mexico); kumpulan ketiga, diberi wang tanpa syarat (UCT—Unconditional Cash Transfer); dan terakhir, di beri ubat cacing.

Rupanya mereka yang diberi pil cacing berkala menunjukkan keputusan darjah terbaik serta prestasi dari segi hasil pendidikan! Lebih luar biasa, mereka mengekalkan kelebihan daya saing mereka kemudian sebagai orang dewasa, seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh pendapatan mereka yang lebih tinggi. Pendek kata, kesihatan asas manusia mengatasi segala-galanya!

Kembali pada awal 1950-an, ahli ekonomi Malaysia teragung Ungku Aziz mencadangkan selalu memberi pil ubat cacing berkala kepada kanak-kanak luar bandar untuk meningkatkan prestasi sekolah mereka. Beliau melihat anak kampung tersebut pucat dengan perut yang buncit dan tingkah laku yang lembap. Sebagai seorang Melayu, beliau biasa dengan persekitaran kampung, baik dari segi fizikal (seperti kemudahan sanitasi yang tidak wujud), mahupun budaya.

Bapa saya membaca cadangan Ungku Aziz dalam akhbar Utusan Melayu dan terus memberi adek beradek saya pil ubat cacing secara berkala. Saya tidak tahu sejauh mana hendak mengaitkan kejayaan akademik saya kemudian kepada pil-pil tersebut atau bimbingan ibu bapa dan guru saya. Saya juga tidak tahu sama ada pembuat dasar Malaysia pernah menerima pemerhatian Ungku Aziz yang berpandangan jauh itu dan berberapa dekad sebelum pasangan ahli ekonomi MIT yang terkenal itu.

Hari ini akibat status ekonomi keluarga Melayu luar bandar semakin baik secara amnya, murid semuanya termasuk di luar bandar semuanya memakai kasut. Itulah cara paling berkesan untuk mengurangkan cacing dalam usus—dengan cara pencegahan. Tiada mungkin kesan kurang baik seperti mengunakan pil.

Kembali kepada ibu bapa saya, dia akan marah jika ada di antara kami jika yang keluar tanpa menggunakan alas kaki. Kami sentiasa memakai terompah, murah dan senang di dapati.

Kaedah saintifik, seperti ujian klinikal "buta" adalah aspek pemikiran kritikal. Kemajuan Barat dalam dua tiga abad terakhir, dan kini Asia Timur dalam setengah abad terakhir, dikaitkan dengan penggunaan pendekatan saintifik. Kemajuan China sekarang bukan disebabkan oleh etika Konfusianisme yang misterius, seperti yang didakwa sesetengah pihak. Sebaliknya itu adalah akibat negara itu memeluk sains dan teknologi selepas kegagalan teruk revolusi Mao yang tidak berkesudahan dan sosialisme yang tidak berakal. Akibatnya anak muda mereka habis masa melaungkan ayat-ayat dari Buku Merah Mao.

Mereka yang terdedah kepada sains kurang berkemungkinan dipengaruh oleh emosi atau pemikiran yang ceroboh. Satu kebetulan ialah bahagian Malaysia yang paling kebelakangan seperti Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, dan Terengganu, juga adalah negeri yang paling kurang "saintifik". Tidak hairan juga mereka mudah terpengaruh dengan retorik dan syarahan pemimpin agama mereka yang sama jumud dan buta sains. Negeri tersebut juga mempunyai insiden kes Covid-19 tertinggi.

Berfikir secara kritikal bukanlah untuk mengkeji atau menghakimi, seperti istilah tersebut pada umumnya difahami. Ia bukan untuk merendah-rendahkan atau meragui norma dan nilai orang lain, terutamanya mereka yang berbeza budaya atau asal atau dan tidak bersetuju dengan anda.

Sebaliknya, anda menyoal untuk memastikan kebenaran atau kesahihan sesuatu dakwaan atau kenyataan. Pemikiran kritikal hanya menghakimi dalam erti kata anda membenci atau menolak mereka yang menggunakan penaakulan yang salah atau andaian palsu untuk mencapai kesimpulan. Pemikiran kritikal akan membawa kita ke arah realiti baharu yang belum pernah terbayang sebelum ini.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer menulis dalam Rumah Kaca, "Kita semua perlu menerima 'fakta'. Walau bagaimanapun, jika itu sahaja yang kita lakukan, maka kita tidak akan pernah berkembang. Manusia mesti mencipta fakta baharu agar kita tidak berisiko menghapuskan perkataan 'kemajuan' dalam perbendaharaan kata kita."

Mencipta fakta baharu memerlukan pemikiran kritikal.

Seterusnya: Berfikir Secara Kritikal Adalah Kemahiran YangBoleh  Dipelajari

Thinking and Creating New Realities

  

Thinking And Creating New Realities

M. Bakri Musa

Excerpt #15 from my book Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

The clinical trial approach has been adopted by other disciplines beyond medicine, in particular economics. Consider the problem of low educational achievements among poor rural students. Why not try different interventions and analyze the results.

 

         A husband-and-wife team of MIT economists did exactly that–clinical trials–with African school children. One group received free school meals (as in America); another, monetary incentive to encourage parents to keep their children in school (a la Mexico’s Progressa Program); a third, given money but with no conditions attached (UCT–Unconditional Cash Transfers); and last, simple medical intervention of regular deworming.

 

         It turned out that those given regular deworming pills did the best in terms of educational outcome! More remarkable, they maintained their competitive advantage later as adults, as reflected by their superior earnings. Basic human health trumps everything else!

 

         Back in the early 1950s, Malaysian economist Ungku Aziz suggested regular deworming of rural children to improve their school performances. He had previously visited those villages and saw the children’s pallid faces, bloated tummies, and sluggish behaviors. Being a Malay, he was familiar with the kampung environment, physical (as with non-existent sanitary facilities), as well as cultural.

 

         My father read Ungku Aziz’s suggestion in the local papers and decided to give his children regular deworming pills. I do not know how much to attribute my later academic success to those pills, my parents’ guidance, or my teachers’ tutelage. I also do not know whether Malaysian policymakers ever adopted Ungku Aziz’s prescient observation decades before those famous MIT economists.

 

         Today, thanks to the general improved economic status of rural Malay families, their children all now wear shoes. That is the most effective way of managing worm infestations–prevention. No potential side effects too, as with medications!

 

         Back to my parents, woe would be to any of us if we were caught going around barefooted outside. We always had our wooden sandals on, the terompah.

 

         The scientific method, as with “blind” clinical trials, is an aspect of critical thinking. The progress of the West during the last two centuries, and now East Asia during the last half century, is attributed to their adoption of the scientific approach. China’s current progress is not due to some mysterious Confucian ethics, as some are claiming, rather to the country embracing science and technology after the abysmal failure of Mao’s endless revolutions and mindless socialism with their young chanting verses from Mao’s Red Book.

 

         Those exposed to science are less likely to be swayed by emotions or sloppy thinking. It is not coincidental that the least developed parts of Malaysia–Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu–are also the least “scientific.” No surprise also that they are easily swayed by the rhetoric and oratories of their equally insular and science-illiterate religious leaders. Those states also had the highest incidence of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic.

 

         To think critically is not to be judgmental, as the term is generally understood. It is not to belittle or cast doubts on the norms and values of others, especially those who are different from or who disagree with you.

 

         Instead, you ask questions to ascertain the truth or validity of a claim or assertion. Critical thinking is judgmental only in the sense that you abhor or reject those using faulty reasonings or false assumptions to arrive at a conclusion. Critical thinking would lead us towards hitherto new and unimagined realities.

 

         Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote in his Rumah Kaca (House of Glass), “We all have to accept ‘facts.’ However, if that is all we do, then we will never grow. Man must create new facts lest we risk eliminating the word ‘progress’ in our vocabulary.” 

 

         Creating new facts requires critical thinking.

 

Next:  Thinking Critically Is A Learned Skill

Ujian Clinical Untuk Menyelesaikan Masaalah Sosial

 Ujian Klinikal Untuk Menyelesaikan Masalah Sosial

M. Bakri Musa

Petikan #14 daripada buku saya “Qur’an, Hadith, Dan Hikayat: Latihan Dalam Pemikiran Kritikal”

Pemikiran kritikal itu melibatkan menanya banyak soalan, mungkin selalunya yang susah dan kurang menyenangkan. Ia jangan disalah anggap dengan “persoalan” atau bersifat kritikal semata-mata. Bukan niatnya untuk menimbulkan keraguan atau sinis. Anda bertanya soalan untuk memastikan kebenaran sesuatu dakwaan atau kenyataan.

Renungkan kenyataan yang mudah ini. Saya pening kepala; makan pil aspirin dan sakit kepala itu hilang. Maka aspirin itulah yang menyembuhkan sakit kepala ku. Tetapi kadangkala minum air suam sahaja pun boleh menghilangkan sakit itu; begitu juga dengan melafazkan ayat-ayat suci atau selepas tidur lena.

Oleh kerana perubatan moden berasaskan sains, para doktor menyelesaikan kemusykilan ini bukan dengan mendengar nasihat pakar terkenal (dulu atau sekarang), tetapi dengan melakukan kajian dua buta (double-blind studies). Kumpulkan 200 orang pesakit pening kepala dan berikan separuh daripadanya aspirin, separuh lagi pil gula sahaja. Kemudian, buat kajian teliti menggunakan statistik. Sebahagian mereka yang diberi pil gula pun akan sumboh pening kepala mereka mungkin dengan sendirinya atau kesan plasebo semata-mata. 

Pak bomoh tetap kukuh pegangan mereka terhadap pengikutnya berdasarkan kesan plasebo ini, atau secara kasarnya, kebetulan dengan kepercayaan semata-mata. 

Ketika pandemik Covid-19, ramai yang mempersoalkan keperluan atau kesia-siaan pelbagai langkah yang diambil, seperti kuarantin dan larangan perhimpunan ramai, serta vaksinasi, penjarakan sosial, dan pemakaian pelitup muka. 

Dua pendekatan kepada masalah ini. Pertama, kaji wabak yang lalu; kedua, kaji langkah yang diambil oleh negara yang berjaya mengawal wabak ini. Sebelum memulakan kajian sedemikian, kita mesti mempunyai pemahaman asas tentang penyakit, khususnya perjalanan semula jadi penyakit itu. Ini boleh disimpulkan daripada sejarah, seperti ketika tanpa perubatan moden, atau dalam masyarakat terpencil semasa yang tidak tersentuh peradaban. Itu disebut sebagai “eksperimen alam jadi.”

Setiap wabak, atas pelbagai sebab, kebanyakan orang ramai atau penduduk akan terselamat. Mekanisme pertahanan badan semula jadi kita adalah satu faktor. Yang lain, atas naluri asas untuk terus hidup, kita belajar mengambil langkah pencegahan sendiri. Bagi agen berjangkit, jika berlaku mutasi (perubahan biologi) yang menjadikannya lebih bahaya atau senang berjangkit, seperti yang dialami dengan varian Delta Covid-19, angka mangsanya akan meningkat. Begitu juga, sebaliknya.

Pertimbangkan sebahagian besar mereka yang terselamat dengan sendirinya. Jika seorang penjual ubat kampung menjual ramuan ajaibnya kepada mereka, dia bermegah dengan kejayaannya 100 peratus, lebih baik daripada apa yang di buat oleh pakar moden. Dia mungkin menjadi kaya dan terkenal. Begitu juga dengan seorang agamawan yang membaca doa suci kepada kumpulan ini. Dia juga akan terkenal atas bebolihannya. Bahkan boleh memulakan agama baru! 

Seseorang itu boleh mendakwa banyak perkara hanya dengan memutar dadu dengan betul, atau memilih pelanggan dengan teliti. Disinilah perlunya ujian saintifik dua buta yang terkawal. Jika sesuatunya boleh mengurangkan ramainya si penyakit dalam kumpulan yang menerimanya berbanding dengan kumpulan yang tidak di beri apa apa, maka campur tangan itu berkesan. Dengan cara inilah kesanan vaksin telah dibuktikan. 

Semasa pandemik Covid-19, mereka yang tidak bersetuju dengan vaksin menonjolkan kes-kes individu yang mengalamai kesan yang kurang baik, termasuklah mereka yang membawa maut. Kesimpulan segera ialah kematian, komplikasi, dan kesan buruk lain itu di sebabkan oleh vaksin. Itu mungkin benar. 

Tetapi fikirkan bahawa pada bila-bila masa pun akan ada orang yang mengalami strok dan serangan jantung, bahkan mati, selepas perbuatan remeh seperti berjalan kaki atau menonton permainan bola sepak. Tiada siapa yang waras akan membuat kesimpulan bahawa menonton permainan bola sepak akan menyebabkan serangan jantung.

Namun kita melakukannya dengan kejadian buruk selepas vaksinasi, terutamanya yang dipanggil “kematian berlebihan” yang tinggi. Itulah sebabnya kita memerlukan kajian terkawal dan analisis kes individu yang teliti.

Seterusnya: Pemikiran Dan Mencipta Realiti Baharu

Clinical Trials In Solving Social Problems

 Clinical Trials In Solving Social Problems

M. Bakri Musa

 

Excerpt #14 from my book Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

Critical thinking involves asking many and often hard, discomfiting questions. It should not be confused with “questioning” or being critical. It is not with the intention of casting doubt or being cynical. You ask questions to ascertain the truth of a claim or assertion.

 

         Consider this simple statement. I have a headache; I took aspirin and it went away. Therefore, the aspirin cured my headache. Sometimes drinking warm water would also do it; likewise with chanting verses from holy texts, or after a good sleep.

 

         With modern medicine being scientifically based, physicians solve this quandary not by listening to the utterances of famous doctors (then or now) but by doing double-blind studies. Get 200 patients with headaches and give half of them an aspirin, the other half, sugar tablet. Then analyze the results using rigorous statistical techniques. Some of those given sugar pills would have their headaches disappear anyway–on its own or just the placebo effect.

 

         Bomohs and faith healers maintain their tenacious hold on their followers based on these placebo effects, or flukes, to put it less kindly.

 

         During the Covid-19 pandemic many questioned the necessity or futility of the various measures taken, as with quarantine and the banning of mass gatherings, as well as vaccinations, social distancing, and wearing face masks.

 

         Two approaches to the problem:  One, study past epidemics; another, evaluate current measures taken by those nations that have successfully controlled the pandemic.

 

         Before embarking on such studies, one must have some basic understanding on the diseases, in particular the natural course. This could be inferred from history as when we did not have modern medical interventions, or in current isolated societies untouched by civilization in what we would refer to as “experiments of nature.”

 

         During any epidemic, for a variety of reasons most of the population would be spared. Our innate body defense mechanism is one factor. The other, out of basic survival instincts we learn to take preventive measures on our own.

 

         As for the infectious agent, if there were to be a mutation (biological change) making it more infectious or lethal, as we experienced with Covid-19 Delta variant, the figures would be scaled up. Likewise, the reverse.

 

         Consider the vast majority without symptoms. If a snake oil salesman were to sell them his miracle potion, he could brag of a 100 percent success rate, better than what those doctors could offer. He would become rich and famous. Similarly, if a religious man were to incant his special prayers to this group, he too would be famous. He could even start a new religion. One could claim many things just by rolling the dice right, or with the careful selection of clients.

 

         Hence the need for controlled double-blind scientific trials. If an intervention could reduce the incidence of disease in the group that receives it versus another that does not, then that intervention is effective. Thus the effectiveness of vaccines was established.

 

         With the Covid-19 pandemic, the anti-vaccine advocates highlighted those individual cases of side effects including the rare deaths following vaccination. The immediate conclusion was that those deaths, complications, and other adverse effects were caused by the vaccines. Those may well be.

 

         However, consider that at any given time there would be people having strokes and heart attacks or even die, often following trivial incidents like walking or watching a football game. No one in their right mind would conclude that watching a football game would cause a heart attack. Yet we do that with adverse events following vaccinations, especially the high so-called “excess deaths.” That is why we need controlled studies and careful analysis of individual cases.

 

         Next:  Thinking And Creating New Realities

Timur Tetap Timur; Barat Tetap BaratNamun Keduanya Pasti Berza

 Timur Tetap Timur, Barat Tetap Barat; Namun Keduanya Pasti Bersua

M. Bakri Musa

[Petikan dari Qur’an, Hadith, and Hikayat: Exercises In Critical Thinking akan bersambung minggu hadapan.]

Klip video tular baru-baru ini yang meunjukkan bintang UFC, Khabib Nurmagomedov, sengaja mengelak bersalaman tangan dengan wartawan CBS Sports, Kate Scott, telah menjadi buah mulut di Timur dan Barat, namun dengan alasan yang sangat berbeza dan bertentangan. Di Barat, kejadian itu dianggap sebagai perbuatan yang sangat biadab dan seksis. Di dunia Islam pula, sambutannya amat jauh berbeza. Khabib dipuji secara meluas kerana ketegasannya dalam mematuhi etika Islam ketika bergaul dengan perempuan diluar mahram.

Peristiwa itu mengingatkan saya kepada barisan pembuka sajak Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”: “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!” (Timur tetap Timur, Barat tetap Barat: Namun keduanya tidak pasti bersua).

Kipling dianggap sebagai penjajah asli. Dia juga seorang orientalis sejati beberapa abad sebelum Edward Said memperkenalkan istilah meremehkan itu.

Untuk pandagan yang lauh berbeza, beberapa tahun dalalu seorang Imam undangan kelahiran Amerika yang terkenal dan berkulit puteh memberi ceramah kepada kumpulan kecil kaum Islam kami di Silicon Valley, California. Semasa majlis sambutan yang penuh semangat, beliau dilihat bersalaman dengan beberapa ahli wanita dalam kalangan hadirin, baik Muslim mahupun bukan Muslim.

Dalam sesi soal jawab berikutnya, tindakan beliau itu dipersoalkan.

“Betul, saya telah melanggar etika agama kita,” beliau mengakui, “tetapi saya lebih rela melanggar tradisi daripada menghampakan hati dan harapan pendengar saya!”

Dia terus menyambung bahawa apabila melihat majlis kami tidak berasingan mengikut jantina, dan juga ternampak beberapa para hadiran yang bukan Islam, beliau telah membuat andaian tertentu. Beliau tidak akan membuat apa yang dilakukannya sekiranya berucap kepada kumpulan di Arab Saudi, dia terus menerang.

Betul beliau telah membatalkan wuduhnya dan juga melanggar tradisi dengan bersalaman dengan wanita bukan mahram. Namun beliau mengingatkan bahawa dia dengan senang sahaja boleh membaharui wuduhnya.

Ungkapan Imam itu amat mendalam. Yakni, jika terpaksa melakukan kesilapan dan jika diberi pilihan, pilihlah kesilapan yang mudah diperbaiki atau yang membawa akibat yang kurang parah. Bagi Imam itu, lebih mudah baginya untuk memperbaharui wuduhnya daripada mematahkan jangkaan dan hati pendengarnya, atau tidak membalas kemesraan hadirin.

Ajaran penting ini juga saya perolehi lebih awal lagi semasa berlatih untuk menjadi pakar pembedah. Yakni, dalam memilih sesuatu perbuatan atau tindakan, pilihlah yang satu dimana jika anda tersilap, ia lebih mudah diperbaiki dan akibatnya kurang teruk.

Semasa bermula kerja sebagai pakar bedah, saya merawat seorang pesakit yang telah terhentam oleh motosikalnya. Itu mengakibatkan limpa beliau pecah. Tetapi keadaannya masih stabil dan tenteram. Rawatan biasa semasa adalah pembedahan segera untuk mengeluarkan limpa agar gumpalan darah itu akan pecah pada masa yang paling tidak disangka dan pesakit akan maut akibat hilang darah tersembunyi di dalam badan.

Tetapi pada masa itu terdapat beberapa laporan awal dari pusat perubatan terkemuka yang menyarankan pembedahan tidak diperlukan dalam sebilangan besar kes yang stabil. Sedar dengan rawatan yang baru itu, saya mempunyai dua pilihan:  Biarkan si pesakit di hospital tempatan, dengan itu menyelamatkannya dan keluarga dari kesulitan besar serta kos. Namun, jika limpa beliau pecah di tengah malam, saya berisiko kehilangan nyawanya kerana kemungkinan kelewatan untuk menyiapkan pasukan pembedahan. 

Sebaliknya jika saya memindahkannya ke pusat hospital yang lebih besar di mana beliau boleh diperhatikan dengan lebih teliti serta dengan pasukan bedah yang sedia 24 jam. Jika saya tersilap dan pesakit tidak memerlukan pembedahan, kos pemindahan akan boleh diukur dari segi kesulitan dan kos tambahan. Jika saya biarkannya di hospital tempatan, itu mungkin membawa maut kepadanya.

Dengan fikiran itu saya memindahkan sipesakit ke hospital yang lebih besar dan bersedia. Keputusannya, beliau tidak memerlukan pembedahan.

Kembali kepada Kipling, jika kita terus membaca puisinya:

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, 

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; 

When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth! (1-4)

(Terjemahan lebih kurang:  Timur Tetap Timur, Barat Tetap Barat; Namun Keduanya Tidak Pasti Bersua / Dari Bumi Ke Langit, Tunggulah Penghakiman Nya / Tetapi tiada Timur dan tiada Barat / Bila dua makhlok yang kuat bertemu / Sungguh pun mereka datang dari penghujungan dunia!)

Membaca keseluruhan sajak 96 baris itu akan membawa kita kepada kesimpulan yang sangat berbeza. Kedua watak utamanya, yakni Kamal dan anak Kolonel itu, seperti semua manusia pada tahap asasnya adalah sama.

Kembali ke Khabib dan Scott. Renungkan jika Khabib bersalaman dengan Scott walaupun secara buat syarat sahaja atau sambil lalu, bayangkan betapa gembiranya si Scott. Itu juga akan memberi gambaran Islam yang toleran dan mulia. Begitu juga sekiranya Scott mempunyai pemahaman asas tentang dunia Muslim dan Islam, sebuah agama global utama, dan tidak menghulurkan tangannya atau apabila melihat dan apabila merasakan keengganan Si Khabbib, menarik tangannya secara senyap, tidak akan ada kekecohan besar atau lambakan komen fanatik yang menyakitkan.

Sayangnya, Khabib bukan Kamal dan Scott bukan anak Kolonel!

East Is East, And West Is West; And The Twain Shall Meet

 East Is East, And West Is West; And The Twain Shall Meet

M. Bakri Musa

 

[Excerpt from my Qur’an, Hadith, and Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking will resume next week.]

 

The recent video clip of UFC Superstar Khabib Nurmagomedov deliberately avoiding shaking hands with CBS Sports Reporter Kate Scott went viral in both East and West, but for very different and opposite reasons. To Westerners, that scene was viewed very negatively as being spectacularly rude and sexist. In the Muslim world, the reactions were the very opposite. Khabib was widely lauded for his strict observance of Islamic etiquette when interacting with members of the opposite sex who are not mahram (closely related thus prohibited from marrying).

 

            That incident brings to mind Rudyard Kipling’s “The Ballad of East and West” opening line:  “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!”

 

            Kipling was an unapologetic colonialist, as well as the original orientalist long before Edward Said coined that dismissive label.

 

            For a very different perspective, many years ago a well-known Anglo-Saxon American-born guest Imam gave a lecture to our small Muslim group here in Silicon Valley, California. At the enthusiastic welcoming reception, he was seen shaking the hands of a few of the female members in the audience, Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

 

In the ensuing Q&A session, he was challenged for his earlier actions.

 

            “Yes, I breached our faith’s etiquette,” he admitted, “but I would rather break our tradition than my listeners’ heart!”

 

            He went on to say that when he saw that our gathering was not segregated by sex and noting the presence of many non-Muslims, he had made some certain assumptions. He would not have done what he did had he been addressing a group in Saudi Arabia.

 

            He agreed that he had broken his wuduh (ablution) as well as tradition in shaking the hands of non-mahramwomen. However, he reminded his listeners, he could always renew his wuduh.

 

            That Imam was on to something profound. That is, if you have to make a mistake, and given a choice, pick one where your mistake would be readily remediable or result in a lesser consequence. With the Imam, it was much easier for him to renew his wuduh than to break the expectations of his listeners, or not reciprocate the warmth and graciousness of his listeners.

 

This crucial lesson was also imparted on me early in my surgical training. That is, in selecting a course of action, choose one where if you were to make a mistake, it would be much easier to remedy and the consequences less severe.

 

            Decades ago I had a patient who had fallen off his motorbike and torn his spleen. He was stable but the accepted treatment then was immediate surgery to remove the spleen lest the clot would rupture at the most inopportune time. 

 

Except then there were a few early reports from the leading medical centers that recommended surgery would not be needed in the vast majority of such stable cases. I had two options:  Keep the patient locally, thus saving him and family great inconvenience as well as costs. However, if his spleen were to rupture in the middle of the night, I risk losing his life because of possible delays in setting up the surgical team. The alternative was to transfer him to a tertiary center where he could be observed safely with a surgical team available 24 hours. If I were to make a mistake and the patient did not need surgery, the costs of transferring would be quantifiable in terms of extra inconvenience and added costs. The mistake of keeping him locally on the other hand could be fatal.

 

I transferred the patient out. As it turned out, he did not need the surgery.

 

Back to Kipling and going beyond the first line:

 

               Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

               Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;

               But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

               When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

                                                                                                                                            (1-4)

            Reading the entire 96-line poem would lead us to a very different conclusion. That is, the two protagonists, the tribal chieftain Kamal and the Colonel’s son, like all humans, are at the elemental level, the same.

 

            Back to Khabib and Scott. Had he shaken her hand even if perfunctorily, imagine how pleased she would have been and what an image of a tolerant and gracious Islam that would have been projected. Likewise, had Scott had some minimal understating of Muslims and Islam, a major global faith, and had not extended her hand or on seeing and sensing his reluctance, quietly withdrawn hers, there would not have been a big fuss or deluge of shrill bigoted commentaries.

 

            Alas Khabib is no Kamal and Scott is no colonel’s daughter!

Merenungkan Makna "Tanah Melayu Untuk Melayu!"

 Merenungkan Makna "Tanah Melayu Untuk Melayu!"

M. Bakri Musa

Petikan #13 dari buku saya Qur’an, Hadith, Dan Hikayat: Exercises In Critical Thinking

Renungkan seruan politik semasa:  “Tanah Melayu Untuk Melayu.” Itu sering dilaungkan dengan gemeruh dan bersemangat, serta disambut dengan sorakan yang hebat. Kita mahu dinobatkan sebagai Tuan di Tanah Melayu. Penegasan yang penuh emosi itu, seperti yang dijangka, menimbulkan kebimbangan yang besar di kalangan rakyat bukan Melayu.

Kurang difikirkan ialah adakah Negara Malaysia semasa sama dengan apa yang di anggap sebagai Tanah Melayu atau Dunia Melayu yang dulu? Untuk menyamakannya akan memerlukan regangan yang amat terbesar atas konsep Tanah Melayu.

Kemudian timbul pula masalah siapa yang sebenar yang di kenali sebagai Orang Melayu. Mengikut perlembagaan, Melayu ialah seseorang yang lazim bertutur bahasa tersebut, mengamalkan budayanya, dan beragama Islam. Maknanya seorang Orang Jawa atau si Mamak dari Kerala yang datang ke Malaysia semalam dan boleh berbahasa Melayu serta mengamalkan ciri-ciri budaya kita akan kini dianggap, mengikut perlembagaan dan penerimaan umum, sebagai seorang Melayu. Dia kemudian boleh menyertai UMNO dan terus menjadi Perdana Menteri jika dia tidak beramanah dan tidak segan makan suap.

Kita boleh mengiktirafkan sejauh mana "keMelayuan" seseorang melalui analisis genetik jika anda ingin membazirkan wang untuk ujian "saintifik" itu. Test itu mungkin mengikut cara sains tetapi sayangnya tidak ada apa yang di sifatkan sebgai “gene” atau “urat”Melayu atau bangsa lain. Yang nyata ialah ciri-ciri seperti sepet mata, rambut hitam, dan hidung lepet yang berkait secara statistic dengan sesuatu kaum dan bangsa. Konsep kaum atau ras lebih merupakan binaan sosial. Lawati Kedah. "Melayu" di sana tidak berbeza rupa dengan Tamil di Kerala tetapi mereka adalah penyokong kuat UMNO.

Jika Tanah Melayu dikatakan milik Melayu semata-mata berdasarkan namanya, maka pertimbangkan Lautan Hindi dan Laut China Selatan. Presiden Trump menukar nama Teluk Mexico kepada Teluk Amerika tidak mengubah realitinya. Itu hanya bermakna pembaziran dana untuk menghasilkan atlas dan buku yang baru untuk sekolah di Amerika.

Ramai menganggap Tanah Melayu dahulu melimpungi Singapura dan sebahagian besar Selatan Thailand (Pattani). Adakah itu akan menjadi sebahagian versi Tanah Melayu mereka pada hari ini? Ramai penyokong “Tanah Melayu Untuk Melayu” ingin melangkah lebih jauh dan mengisytiharkan rakyat bukan Melayu sebagai pendatang haram dan mengusir mereka? Lakukan sedemikian dan Negeri Cina tidak akan berdiam. Jika Jepun boleh menakluki negara ini hanya dengan naik basikal, bayangkan apa yang boleh dilakukan oleh Negara Cina yang sekarang moden dan kuat!

Hanya memikirkan (secara kritikal atau tidak) tentang kemungkinan itu akan membuatkan kaum pelampau Melayu yang ingin mengamuk berfikir dan bersabar.

Maklumkanlah jika kita menerima tuntutan bahawa Tanah Melayu adalah untuk orang Melayu sahaja. Mungkinkah sesiapa sahaja orang Melayu boleh menuntut hutan rimba dan menebang dan menjual pokok kayu keras bernilai tinggi, atau melombong nadir bumi yang berharga itu? Atau menuntut untuk memilik rumah mahal di Country Estate atau kondo mewah di Bukit Kiara?

Jika melalui undang undang baru yang direka, tanah dan rumah yang mahal itu dikhaskan atau di beri kepada orang Melayu, yakinlah bahawa orang Melayu biasa dan di kampung tidak akan menjadi penerima borkat itu. Malah sekarang, hutan dengan balak yang berharga itu telah pun dituntut dan digondolkan oleh keluarga diraja dan panglima UMNO. Orang Melayu biasa tidak mendapat apa-apa, kecuali mungkin hadiah Haji percuma sekali-sekala. Sementara itu mereka menanggung akibatnya, seperti banjir dan tanah runtuh kerana kemerosotan alam sekitar yang berlaku.

Orang Melayu perlu diingatkan, dan selalu, bahawa di bawah pemerintahan Melayu terdahulu sebelum penjajahan Barat masuk ke dunia kita, rakyat biasa tidak dapat memiliki apa-apa pun. Sebaliknya, mereka adalah hamba dan harta sultan. Perhambaan adalah sangat biasa dalam alam Melayu sebelum datangnya kaum penjajah barat. Satu-satunya hikmahnya, kalua itu istilah yang sesuai, ialah kita tidak seperti orang kulit hitam di Amerika yang diperhambakan oleh orang kulit putih, kita orang Melayu diperhambakan oleh bangsa kita sendiri. Walau bagaimana pun pait dan sedihnya sama sahaja.

Jika tidak kerana penjajahan British yang menghapuskan sifat perhambaan dalam budaya kita dan kemudian memberi peluang pendidikan moden, saya ditakdirkan mungkin masih menjadi orang hamba di istana.

Dengan menyoal apa makna sebenarnya istilah seperti "milik" dan "Tanah Melayu" akan membuat kita lebih teliti untuk memeriksa andaian yang telah kita buat secara sedar atau tidak sedar. Sekurangnya latihan tersebut akan membuatkan kita merenung, menjadikan kita lebih susah untuk dipengaruhi secara emosi dan seruan yang menarik tetapi merosakkan seperti "Tanah Melayu untuk Melayu!"

Itulah yang dilakukan oleh pemikiran kritikal. Ia menjadikan seseorang kurang berkemungkinan untuk menelan kata-kata manis jurujual dan juga laungan chauvinistik ahli politik yang licik.

Satu cara untuk menjadikan Malaysia atau sekurang-kurangnya bahagian Semenanjung, menjadi tanah atau milik orang Melayu sebagai realiti dan bukan hanya sekadar fantasi atau angan angan Mat Jenin Sahaja ialah dengan meningkatkan mutu sekolah kebangsaan di mana pelajarnya semua Melayu. Laksanakan itu dan kemudian lihat orang Melayu kita menjadi lebih kompetitif sebagai para usahawan dan kaum profesional. Hanya dengan cara itu kita boleh menjadi Tuan bukan sahaja di Tanah Melayu tetapi juga di negara lain. 

Jika tidak, maka kita ditakdirkan untuk kekal sebagai orang hamba di Tanah Melayu kita sendiri. Tiada ribuan jeritan dan berpanjangan berslogan serta perhimpunan gergasi "Melayu Berdaulat" yang tidak berhabisan akan mengubah keadaan pahit kita. Kedaulatan, seperti penghormatan, diperoleh dengan tenaga dan usaha, dan tidak mungkin diberikan di atas dulang perak.

Seterusnya: Kajian Tentang Penyelesaian Masalah Sosial

Thinking Critically On The Meaning of "Tanah Melayu"

 Thinking Critically on the Meaning of “Tanah Melayu”

M. Bakri Musa

June 2, 2025

Excerpt #13 from my book Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking

 

Consider the current nationalistic orgies of Malay political rhetoric:  Tanah Melayu Untuk Melayu (Malay Land for Malays). That phrase is bandied around with abandon, and being applauded with gusto. We want to be anointed Tuans (lords) in Tanah Melayu. That emotion-laden assertion, as expected, causes much angst among non-Malays.

 

         Even if there were to be a political entity called Tanah Melayu or Dunia Melayu (Malay World) once, it would take considerable concept stretching to assert that today’s Malaysia is the successor.

 

         Then there is the issue of who is a Malay. As per the constitution as well as general acceptance, a Malay is one who habitually speaks the language, practices its culture, and is a Muslim. A Muslim from Java or Mamak from Kerala coming to Malaysia yesterday and who could speak Malay as well as adopt the trappings of the culture would be considered a Malay. He could then join UMNO (United Malay National Organization), and become Prime Minister if he were to be corrupt and wily enough.

 

         We could trace how “Malay” we are through genetic analysis if you want to waste your money on such silly “scientific” tests. Silly because there is no such Malay or any racial genes, only statistically-associated traits. Race is more a social construct. Visit Northern Malaya. The “Malays” there look no different from the Tamils in Kerala but they are UMNO stalwarts.

 

         If Tanah Melayu were to belong to only Malays simply by virtue of its name, then consider the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. President Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America does not materially change the reality. It simply means wasted funds to reproduce new American atlases and school texts.

 

         Many consider Tanah Melayu of yore to include Singapore and a good portion of Southern Thailand (Pattani). Would those real estates be part of their version of today’s Tanah Melayu? Would champions of Tanah Melayu go further and have non-Malays be declared illegal immigrants and deported? Do that and China would not just stand by idly. If the Japanese could overtake the country on bicycles, imagine what a powerful modern China could do!

 

         Just thinking (critically or otherwise) about those possibilities would give pause to even the most belligerent chauvinist Malay.

 

         Even if we were to accept the premise that Tanah Melayu is the land of the Malays, does anyone really think that the average Malay could claim those virgin jungles and cut down the valuable old-world hardwood trees, or mine those precious rare earths? Or claim ownership to the luxury condos in Bukit Kiara? 

 

         If by statutes or some magic those precious assets could be given only to Malays, rest assured that ordinary Malays would not be the beneficiaries. In fact, those precious jungles have already been claimed and denuded by rapacious sultans and UMNO warlords. The average Malay gets nothing, except perhaps a free Hajj trip thrown in here and there. Meanwhile they suffer the consequences, as with floods and landslides because of the ensuing environmental degradations.

 

         Malays must be reminded, and often, that under earlier Malay rule before Western colonization intruded into our world, the rakyat (citizens) owned nothing. Instead, they were properties of the sultans. Slavery was very much the norm in precolonial Malaysia. The only saving grace was that, unlike Blacks in America who were enslaved by Whites, Malays were enslaved by our own kind, if indeed that was any consolation.

 

         If not for British colonization that abolished orang hamba in my culture and later afforded me a superior education, I would be doomed to be orang hamba (slave) in my kampung.

 

         The very fact that we are asking those questions, as with the meaning of “belong” and “Tanah Melayu” sensitizes and forces us to examine the assumptions we have consciously or unconsciously made. At the minimum the exercise would make us pause and ponder, making us less likely to be swayed emotionally by the seductive but destructive shrill calls of “Tanah Melayu untuk Melayu!”

 

         That is what critical thinking does. It makes one less likely to swallow the salesman’s slick spiel as much as the wily politician’s chauvinistic chanting.

 

         The only way to make Malaysia, or at least the Peninsular portion, be the land of the Malays as a practical reality and not merely the fantasy of the Ketuanan Melayu types would be to improve national schools where the students are exclusively Malays. Execute that and then watch Malays become more competitive and have our share of entrepreneurs, professionals, and tradesmen. Then we could be Tuan even in lands other than Tanah Melayu. If we are not, then we are destined to remain as orang hamba even in our own Tanah Melayu. No amount of shouting and sloganeering nor umpteen “Melayu Berdaulat” (Malay Sovereignty) rallies would alter that harsh reality. Sovereignty, like respect, has to be earned and not handed over on a silver platter.

 

Next:  Double Blind Studies In Solving Social Problems