By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
SOMEONE with a high IQ and quite close to me used to keep regular company a bunch of havitual beer drinkers fond of gossiping and alcohol-driven big talk.
He died unknown and an under-achiever.
His story reminds me of the hazards of the company we keep.
And, by extension, can we imagine the kind of characters that our political leaders choose to surround themselves with and what kind of crap they talk about.
They say that birds of the same feathers flock together just as like-minded individuals tend to gather to pow-wow over issues of wider societal interests.
I read that thinking individuals pick their company, and they often choose to be solitude over noise and unproductive, narrow-minded bigoted and incestuous conversations.
I’m thinking …. what kind of people do PM Anwar surround himself with?
Did they influence his tone-deafness?
Didn’t any one of those he invited for tea remind him that he promised reform when he became PM three years ago and that to now say corruption radiation is another 2-3 years away is unacceptable.
Closer to home … who do our CM Hajiji have for company.
Does he ever feel the need for some thought refueling?
Or is he such simpleton and vocabulary-deficient that he actually thought he has everything Sabah figured out?
He just lost two allies in Star (Jeffrey Kitingan) and SAPP (Yong Tech Lee) and his GRS coalition is coming loose.
Who is he consulting with?
Or is he one of those IQ-challenged who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know?
He’s in a shit hole over the mining licence fiasco and he looks to be banking on inaction on the PM’s part to be safe.. under such circumstances, I’m sure his choice of intellectual company is limited.
I consider myself an open, unprejudiced person unbothered by things of religion and race.
So my jaw dropped years ago when a friend asked when I last ate with Muslim friends and if my children had close Muslim friends.
I often interacted with people different from me.
But I can’t remember the last time I dined with one of them nor can I recall any of my kids’ non-Chinese friends.
But the thought reminded me that I may think I’m unprejudiced and a subscriber of multi culturalism, bur years of living in a sphere devoidwater finds its of things non Chinese may have cultivated an unintended bias in me.
Therefore, it bothers me to think that our leaders can’t be trusted to have consciously chosen in their daily working life to choose to mingle and interact physically and intellectually ndividuaLs different from them.
I suggested to a school principal I know about a program to get his independent school children to mix (through sports and games, for instance) with govt schools’ children.
I haven’t seen anything. Perhaps he’s still finding a way to convince his board of management.
Birds look for those with the same feathers, like water always finds its own level.
Lee Kuan Yew used to invited to global intellectual forums with intellectuals of note.
When was the last Malaysian enjoying such recognition.
Malaysia is lauded as a great example in the success of multi culturalism.
But when was the last time a Malaysian leader got invited to a global forum to expound on the subject?
Why?
George Yeo was Singapore foreign minister the same period as Anifa Aman of Malaysia.
George has been a speaker on geopolitical affairs at global forums. I’m still waiting to hear Anifah.
The company you keep is entirely up to you.
You can pick who litens to you if you’re paying for the beer.
But sometimes that don’t work. That’s when you know you are a load of shit!
Editor: The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the talantang.com