Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Antara ABAD dengan ADAB


Apa pandangan anda mengenai dua perkataan ini, iaitu Abad dan Adab

Abad
2. Abad berbicara tentang masa. Kita masing-masing mempunyai masa lalu, masa kini, dan masa depan. Masa lalu telah kita tinggalkan dan tidak mungkin kembali lagi. Kita belajar dan mengambil iktibar daripada masa lalu kita. Kita belajar menghargainya. Kita belajar mencipta sempadan. Kita bertekad menghargai kesempatan. Kita berjanji tidak mengulangi kesilapan. Kita berjuang membetulkan kesilapan.

3. Demikian halnya dengan masa depan. Masa depan itu belum pasti. Walau bijak macam mana pun kita, pasti kita tidak tahu apa yang akan berlaku esok. Namun, masa depan tidak pernah berakhir. Masa depan kita akan tetap bermula. Dengan itu, kita perlu merancang dengan teratur dan bersungguh-sungguh. Yang menentukan kejayaan perancangan itu, hanya Yang Maha Esa. 

4. Ibarat kita menanam benih, kita tidak berupaya sedikit pun memastikan benih itu tumbuh. Yang membenarkan benih itu tumbuh bukan baja yang kita berikan. Yang menumbuhkan benih itu adalah Tuhan itu sendiri. Tuhan menumbuhkan benih, tetapi kitalah yang memastikan sama ada benih itu dibiarkan tumbuh bersama semak atau tidak. Kitalah yang bertanggungjawab membersihkannya.

5. Sesungguhnya, yang pasti, adalah masa kini. Masa kinilah yang kita perlu fikirkan dan ambil tindakan. Jika kita berbeban berat, atasi beban berat itu dengan sebijak yang mungkin, tanpa berputus harapan. Kita berusaha dengan gigih dan tekun. Pasti kita akan berasa lega apabila kita berjaya melangkah untuk satu episod perjalanan.

Adab
6. Adab berbicara tentang jati diri atau identiti kita. Ia merujuk kepada karakter kita. Adab adalah karakter terpuji dan mulia. Orang yang beradab ialah orang yang berhemah. Orang yang berhemah ialah orang yang berhikmat. Orang yang berhikmat akan hidup di mana pun dia berada. Untuk itu, adab adalah perkara utama yang perlu diperkasakan. 

7. Adab bukan sahaja berkaitan dengan kesopanan dan kesusilaan, tetapi adab adalah berkaitan dengan  integriti kita. Orang yang berintegriti adalah orang yang beradab. Marilah kita memupuk nilai integriti dan adab itu dalam diri kita masing-masing. Nilai integriti dan adab itu adalah sejagat. Ia diperlukan di mana saja.

ABAD dan ADAB 
8. Walaupun kedua-dua perkataan ini mempunyai maksud masing-masing, namun, saya sebenarnya mencipta akronim bagi perkataan yang indah dan menarik ini. Tahukah anda apakah akronim bagi ABAD dan ADAB itu? Akronim itu adalah seperti berikut:
  • ABAD: Anda Buat Anda Dapat
  • ADAB: Anda Dapat Anda Buat
9. Anda buat, anda pasti akan mendapat. Tiada apa-apa yang anda akan dapat jika anda tidak melakukan sesuatu. Masa yang menentukannya. Mungkin pada ketika ini, apa yang kita buat itu belum berjaya menghasilkan sesuatu, tetapi pada akhirnya, setiap yang kita buat itu, pasti ada impaknya. Apa yang kita buat akan membawa pengaruh yang besar kepada diri, keluarga, masyarakat, dan negara kita. 

10. Apabila sesuatu itu anda sudah berjaya mendapatnya, maka anda perlu membuatnya lagi sehingga ia membawa impak yang lebih besar. Marilah kita terus berjuang dengan bersungguh-sungguh membawa impak kepada kehidupan insan. Dengan ABAD dan ADAB, pasti kita akan membawa cahaya terang.


Call to Boycott Chinese Businesses Dangerous - Jeffrey



KOTA KINABALU: The call by Malay-Muslim groups, including the Muslim Consumers' Society and Muslim Consumers Association Malaysia (PPIM) to boycott Chinese businesses is dangerous, says Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan.

In a statement here, the State Reform Party (STAR) Chairman said the development brought racism into a darker and more sinister level in Malaysia, and if left uncontrolled will lead Malaysia into turmoil and anarchy.

"The call is also a reflection of utter disregard to social harmony and is only the tip of the iceberg in emerging social conflicts in the nation," Jeffrey said. "This is all due to gross mismanagement and neglect on the part of the federal leaders."

He said it was shocking how the Prime Minister is keeping quiet about such a dangerous development despite his call for social harmony and unity under the concept of 1Malaysia.

"The socio-political situation now is being made worse by the Home Minister who is so arrogant that he is asking more than half of the Malaysia's voters who voted against the BN to leave the country!" he said. 

"Is Malaysia being purposefully led to descend into total chaos by its own leaders? Has this minister forgotten that he is the Home Minister for all Malaysians and not just the Umno/BN members and Malays?

"This behavior by the Malay Muslim groups and the Home Minister is so unbelievable that one can only wonder if  they have any leadership wisdom left in them. They make us reel back in utter disbelief at their lack of reason, good manners or diplomacy.

"Don't the Malay-Muslim groups know that boycotting the Chinese businesses is impossible and even if it can be done it will spell disaster for the Malaysian economy? 

Are they so ignorant of the fact that by boycotting Chinese businesses they won't even be able to survive? How would they live without simple things like salt, sugar, coffee, tea, and noodles since these are supplied through Chinese importers and distributors? So don't even talk about electrical goods, building materials and cars!

"How do you deny the hard fact that the Chinese run the majority of the businesses in Malaysia and without them the country will collapse overnight? To quote Wikipedia,'Malaysian Chinese constitute one group of Overseas Chinese and constitute the third largest Chinese community in the world, after those in Thailand and Indonesia. Within Malaysia, they ... represent the second largest ethnic group... Malaysian Chinese are dominant in both the business and commerce sectors, controlling an estimated 70% of the Malaysian economy. They are also one of the biggest taxpayers, contributing almost 90% of the national income tax and 60% of Malaysia's national income.'

"A wise Malaysian would know that we can't do without the Chinese, and if we want Malaysia to maintain or improve its economy, we need to make the Chinese our friends instead of bullying antagonizing them. It is also a fact that the non-Chinese are benefitting tremendously from development and social programmes funded by revenues collected from the Chinese business sector.

"We need to learn from the hard lessons from our neighbouring countries where the Chinese were prosecuted and officially discriminated against, and this had caused the glaring economic decline and social poverty that have caused international embarrassment to these countries," he said.

Jeffrey also reminded the anti-Chinese groups of the horrendous trend of brain drain in Malaysia. Quoting Wikipedia, he said these people left Malaysia for good because of "corruption, social inequality, and educational opportunities, and the government's Bumiputera affirmative action policies. As of 2011, Bernama has reported that there are a million talented Malaysians working overseas. Recently the brain drain has increased in pace: 305,000 Malaysians migrated overseas between March 2008 and August 2009 compared to 140,000 in 2007."  

"The Prime Minister had started a program through Talent Corp to attract these talented ex-Malaysians to return and contribute to the country's development," he pointed out. "So why are the Malay-Muslim groups demanding that 51 percent of the Malaysian voters also leave Malaysia? Let's note that this figure includes hundreds of thousands of Malays who support the opposition. Can we even imagine what will happen to Malaysia if these people actually pack up and leave tomorrow?

"This call to boycott Chinese businesses is so far the worse development after the recent general election, and is shows continued desperation and fear among the BN leaders. It's as if they are trembling at the sight of their own shadows. The Prime Minister needs to speak up against this call lest the BN and Umno is continued to be seen as supporting extreme racism in Malaysia.

"His continued silence in the face of this increased racism, anti-Chinese activism, and heightening of the Malay supremacy is shocking, and he dearly needs to speak up against it to show the world that Malaysia is a mature democracy that is model of progress, wisdom and social harmony."


Datuk Dr.Jeffrey Kitingan
Chairman STAR Sabah
21 May 2013