Ancient Chinese Wisdom...

Photograph taken at the Baotu Spring (趵突泉) also known as the '1st spring under heaven' (天下第一泉), Jinan, China

It seems that even after the 'political tsunami' last weekend, the MCA leadership and its press bureau - The Star has still not managed to look introspectively at the rebuke given by Malaysians of ALL RACES...

I would like to bring you to the analects - by Confucius - considering now we are talking about the MCA...

"君子周而不比, 小人比而不周"

Written almost 2,000 years ago, its philosophy is still very much relevant in the political world today. The above line states - 'The superior man (Leader) is all embracing and impartial, while the inferior man is never embracing and always partial."

In this case it is very true - take Ong Ka Chuan who just yesterday criticised the DAP of duping voters (Page N8, The Star 11/03/08). What the DAP is doing is embracing all possibilities in a new environment - by showing itself to be an all inclusive, non-race based party. It must be a hard thing for them to contemplate a PAS MB for Perak, and they would be worried about the repercussions - but kudos to them for not balking at the possibility of an Islamist MB and allow Perak to go into disarray under a minority administration. So Mr YB Ong, be a 君子, not a 小人. Because the Chinese will never support the party of inferior men - stop wagging the dog and look inwards to rebuild the trust the people had for the MCA - for no amount of distractions can change the reality that the MCA has lost our trust, our votes for it no longer represent our voice.

Also from the Analects...

哀公聞曰：「何爲則民服 」

孔子對曰：「擧直錯諸枉, 則民服; 擧枉錯諸直, 則民不服。」

Master of Ai (Duke): How can I make the people follow me?

Confucius: Go forward with upright righteousness and set aside the crooked, and the people will follow you. Go forward with crookedness and set aside the upright, and the people will not follow you.

This should also serve as a warning to the MCA, the people have left you and will not follow you until you bring back righteousness and principles to the party. It pains me for I have once supported the MCA greatly - only to be gravely disappointed. The MCA cannot be a community club or welfare society - it is a political party that needs to set the standard of leadership of the community and bring it into a multi-racial context - ranting about racial lines will only serve to belittle the people and bring MCA further into oblivion.

In the end...

子曰：「爲政以德, 譬如北辰居其所而衆星共之。」

Confucius says: "If you govern by the power of your virture, you will be like the North Star - you will stay in your place (of honour) and all the other stars will revolve around you."