THE BIGGEST THREAT TO SUCCESS

 

They say there is no elevator to success.  And it's true.  We see this everyday.  In the money world, people do not spend the time to do research before investing.  They just buy on tips and sell on rumors.  And keep losing money but still stick to the same strategy.  Because winning is hard.  It involves lots of effort and sacrifices.

On the political front in Malaysia we see DAP and MCA, both Chinese parties trying to do something good for the Chinese and for all Malaysians.  After sixty years what results have they got to show?

DAP is still predominantly a Chinese party that only wins Chinese votes, despite having a slogan "Malaysian Malaysia."  After six long decades, they have not attracted significant Malay membership.  In order to secure enough political power to effect change they resorted to shortcuts by partnering with Malay parties. Although it is well known that PAS is a religious extremist party bent on doing hudud, DAP had no choice but to partner with them.  It is the shortcut to success.  It ended badly with PAS insisting on hudud and DAP finally had no choice but to abandon the partnership.  Next, they partnered with PKR with Anwar at the helm.  Due to reasons beyond their control DAP did not find any success,  because Anwar was convicted (rightly or wrongly) of sodomy.  The final bet was to embrace their greatest old foe Mahathir in order to try to finally do something good for the country.  And how did it end?  Badly, as always.  Mahathir, in his twilight years made a final push for race and religion, the two items closest to his heart.  It thoroughly angered the non-Malay community and it is possible the stress on his allies eventually caused him to resign as prime minister and brought down the whole Cabinet with him.  So much for shortcuts.  Sixty years and back to square one.

MCA is slightly smarter, they say.  They have reached the conclusion since Day One that it is a futile battle.  Malaysia is predominantly Malay and there is no way the Chinese can control politics.  The best strategy is to play along with the strongest Malay political party.  That's all.  Wonderful shortcut.  And how did it play out?  They became the most hated Chinese party and won only one miserable seat in parliament in the latest election.  And they are still sticking to their strategy because they don't want to climb the Mount Everest of Malaysian politics.

THE WAY TO SUCCESS

The way to success is not to embrace shortcuts but to do what is necessary.  Just like Peter Drucker says, "It's more important to do the right thing than to do things right."

In order to bring about sustainable and lasting success for Malaysia, there is no other way but to put into practice the Robert Kuok Theory which says the country must be run by people who are honest and capable, starting from the leadership downwards.

If we have such politicians who are of prestige in our country right now we should invite them to lead a new party to secure power to effect change.  It may not happen in the next election or even the subsequent one.  But it will be successful soon enough and we will have a new country we can all be proud of.  The alternative of partnering with existing leaders or parties who are doomed will cause us to lose another sixty years or even more.