MALAYSIA
By Jahaberdeen M. Yunoos*
The Star-Mar 11
The vital and continuous task of nurturing thinking and compassionate citizens to ensure a comprehensive and holistic approach to nation building cannot be underrated. It is very tempting for politicians to chart a nation’s development only in terms of its physical development.
This is primarily because physical development is visible and has a short time span to complete – usually within the term of office of the political leader. It is easier for the politician to showcase this as his accomplishment compared to the policy of developing quality human capital, which requires a longer time period.
It is not enough to provide opportunities for education; the educational content itself must be of quality and relevant. Education is about imparting and acquiring skills through a systematic approach. While education opens doors for employment and economic growth, in the long run, the sustainability of such economic growth will rely on the “quality” of the educated citizen.
I am convinced that formal education alone cannot sustain the greatness of a nation if it is not accompanied by continuous learning and a national value that extols thinking. While a six-year-old child has already developed basic core thinking skills, the levels of thinking differ as we grow older depending on various factors. It is these factors that the Government should identify to nurture thinking citizens. Clearly, a social, religious and political climate that allows thinking is essential.
A society faces the threat of “extinction” in the very long run if it falls into the myth that formal education alone denotes an “intelligent, thinking and knowledgeable” society. It is even a worse malady if it develops a false pride (bodoh sombong) in its mass educated segment of the populace.
Without a doubt, Malaysia has within a single generation produced a large middle class though its education policy of producing many graduates. However, I believe that in the quest to produce quantity, we may have sacrificed quality. We have paid very little attention to the development of human capital in its true meaning.
The relevant policymakers must urgently take steps to rectify the situation. This is because educated people invariably fill up positions in the civil service and private sector, making important decisions that affect the future of the nation. Citizens with poor thinking skills or poor attitudes towards thinking, albeit educated in some field, will lead the nation downwards.
Skills such as objective thinking, creative thinking, convergent and divergent thinking, critical thinking and so on should be taught to be a norm. Citizens should be educated on the impediments to objective thinking such as prejudices, blind clinging on to norms, unfounded assumptions, preconceived notions and the like. This will go a long way towards ensuring that the educated populace do not become like horses wearing blinkers. More importantly, I believe that we will be creating more efficient and effective human capital.
However, we need to pause and look at reality to recognize that much of today’s woes are caused by educated people. It is the handiwork of educated people that has resulted in environmental problems, weapons of mass destruction, mass poverty (ironic?), unequal distribution of income, disunity of human beings (by political and religious educated people), health issues resulting from the capitalistic nature of the food industry and so on.
No uneducated person is capable of unleashing misery on society at the scale that educated citizens can. Hence, education alone cannot guarantee collective happiness.
I strongly believe that our actions should be tempered with compassion. Our mothers are the first example of compassion without whom we would not even survive the first few months on Earth, least of all being born.
Looking at mothers, I am convinced that compassion is a natural instinct that has ensured the survival of the human species to this day. Mothers try very hard to understand the suffering and discomfort of their children and to remove that suffering.
We need more compassion in today’s world, where the values of being selfish, hedonistic and materialistic are becoming increasingly dominant. We are forgetting that compassion does not only make us feel emotionally good, but is necessary for the survival of the human species.
What is compassion? It is the awareness of someone else’s suffering accompanied by a real desire to alleviate that suffering. It is not just pity or empathy, but a conscious experiencing of someone else’s burden with an action to remove or lighten that burden.
All of us do and will experience various degrees of sufferings in our lives. Some of these sufferings can be alleviated collectively so that we collectively become happier.
We suffer from the effects of discrimination, poverty, oppression by those in higher positions of power, status and wealth than us, corrupt practices, violence and so on. These are some of the causes of collective misery in society.
When you enhance your compassionate trait, you are not only able to empathise with others, but conduct all your affairs in such a way that it does not cause others to suffer. For over 15 years now, my friends and I have tried to share the importance of nurturing thinking and compassionate citizens through the “Rapera movement”. We pray it will bear fruit.
*Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos is a senior lawyer and founder of Rapera, a movement which encourages thinking and compassionate citizens.
(First published in The Star – https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/through-many-windows/2018/03/11/nurturing-thinking-malaysian-citizens-formal-education-alone-cant-sustain-the-greatness-of-a-nation/#JGYEqbisksWKT59q.99)
