1Malaysia: The one time the Spartans had surrendered… and Spartan wit

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Malaysian politicians are incredibly lacking in local and international displays of diplomacy or wit to win over the hearts of their electorate.

Just look at the house politics of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat; sadly lacking in a touch of class. Malaysians are treated to coarse, KPI-less style of politics which seems highly unsuitable for today’s problem solving era.

In the interest of our children and nation, we will be kind enough to share some information to help upgrade the skills quotient of BN and PR politicKings.

Lesson 1:

There was one time the Spartans surrendered. Yes, in battle in Athens, but they surrendered because arrows were being fired at them from a distance.

It was not the hand-to-hand fighting they believed in. They would not engage in a woman’s approach to war so they handed in their shields.

They were kept in a prison and taunted by the Athenians, who put their shields around the temple of Athena on the Acropolis. “They glistened in the sun for miles around. But the Spartans were imperturbable. To them, firing arrows was not real warfare.

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Spartan wit:

Philip of Macedon sent them a note saying, “If I enter Lacedaemonia, I will raze Sparta to the ground.”

The answer from the Spartans was short: “If…”

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At Thermopylae, when the Persians boasted that their warriors had so many arrows they would black out the sun, and the Spartans said, “Then we’ll be happy to fight in the shade.”

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Note: Appreciation to Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time Newsletter

A question for MCA members… thru Malaysiakini

We believe in governance and a good government made up of good people with strong principles of life.

As we have received many queries from members concerned about the upcoming MCA party election, we would like to throw these questions to you to assist members to make the best decisions this October.

It is worrying that the female MCA members do not seem to regard this as a big question of concern for the party or think of its impact on the Confucian family values which the women wing claim to represent.

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Questions to ponder for MCA’s future and the 13th General Election. And we would love to hear input from readers of Malaysiakini also:

• What sort of persons would you want to be leading the party and represent your voice?
• Do you want your candidates to tell you about their principles in life?
• Since they would like to represent the community, would you want them to possess some moral standing?
• Would you be contented to just let them be what they naturally are?
• And they, being what they are, can they just simply represent you and your community to interface with the global world?

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A penny for your thoughts: See below * a concern from a commentator (we think he/she is an MCA member):

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When you were caught you resigned immediately cause you said you don’t want to bring trouble to BN and MCA. I truly respected your act at that time. However, now you say you want to come back? What responsibility you were talking about? Is this what politician all about? Don’t you think you bring the mud back to BN and MCA?

I think many people don’t want to talk about your video story and people already forgive you when you had resigned. Why must you still want to show your existance all the time? Why don’t you let MCA members be proud to have a leader who dare to take up the responsibilities and walked out?

I do not know what is your agenda and what unfinish plan you have. Or you just want to make a revenge on certain group in MCA regardless you would tainted MCA image again.

Dr., I strongly believe MCA can do without you at top leadership. There are still many ways to contribute. Please don’t bring disgrace back to MCA. This will definitely will be a burden to BN and MCA at next general election if you won in MCA election.

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* Extracted from Malaysia Today’s article ‘Datuk Chua Soi Lek -Ahli Politik‘

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Character, Leadership and Command in Malaysia politicians

We found an extremely interesting research which may be of help to educate our Malaysian politicians. Perhaps you might want to get one and donate it to your neighbourhood politicians.

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The book excerpt below talks of the importance of Character, Leadership and Command in Organisations.

“Even when leaders try to hide and disguise their character, their traits are recognizable to others,” says Harvard Business School professor emeritus Abraham Zaleznik. His new book, Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations, explores the internal complexities of people in control.

Key concepts include:

* Hedgehogs know one big thing while foxes know many things.

* Applied to leadership, hedgehogs reduce reality to one single principle, while foxes are prepared to adapt to a complex view of the world.

* An individual’s character is outwardly represented while it is a product of development, starting with early childhood.

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Here’s a book excerpt from Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations, by Abraham Zaleznik

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Individuals who are caught up in empowerment movements, both nonviolent and violent, substitute one form of dependency—on an authoritarian program or leader—for another—economic privation. Liberation, from these and other forms of dependency, requires freeing the ego from group psychology and from neurotic disabilities that restrict the development of the individual.

Once restrictive governments are replaced, new goals have to be developed with the aim of enhancing the ego through education, economic opportunity, and personal freedom. …
Empowerment movements have sprung up in the United States and other developed countries with democratic institutions. Empowerment movements have been adopted in the name of feminine liberation and equality of the sexes.

In complex organizations empowerment programs seek to alter hierarchies, to “flatten” the organizational structure, decreasing the authority of top levels while increasing the autonomy of the lower levels. These ideological approaches carefully avoid the fact that hierarchy is a form found in nature. Assemble a group, give it a purpose, and if left to its own devices, it will organize itself into a hierarchical structure in the shape of a pyramid.

True empowerment is a result of individual transformation from dependency to autonomy following the path of maturation from infancy onward. … Education and training to develop competencies is the sure, albeit slow, route to empowerment through the enhancement of talents, whether in developed economies or third world nations.

In underdeveloped nations the route toward self-engendered empowerment may be longer, and the results may be slower to materialize, but whether in developed or underdeveloped economies, self-empowerment requires motivation. The desire to develop and strengthen the ego must be internalized, and this comes with the cultivation of talents.

Unlike mass movements under the leadership of a charismatic leader, empowerment of individuals through the development of talents comes through education and training.

Identification with gifted teachers, who stimulate learning, is a microscopic process that occurs not only in the formal atmosphere of the classroom but also in the seemingly mundane activity in factories and offices—wherever people assemble to accomplish work.

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P/S: Unlike our UiTM under leadership of its lifer vice chancellor, Abraham Zaleznik is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. You can read his biography here.