(WARNING: This post contains an 18PG class of advertisement at the bottom)
The article on No Holds Barred by RPK entitled "My God is different from your God" was something that many saw as an "attack on Islam/ Malays" who are enamoured by the trappings of wealth, luxury and "privilege".
It didn't quite seem to be so to me - it was more of an attack on the philosophy and morality that has bred a generation of bigots and liars. A philosophy that breeds the idea and "ethics" of robbers ..... The following was my comment:
written by cruzeiro, July 31, 2008 | 20:17:03 It has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with education. It is the education that has been corrupted since the start of the NEP (aka 'social contract') and formation of Biro Tata Nincompoops - two immoral institutions that breeds corruption.
I'm sorry RPK - but I think you're hitting out at the "people of a race/religion", but not the institutions that breeds the corruption at the expense of justice and integrity.
The problem starts when these ideas of "crook" are stressed on via the "creed" of "Racial Supremacy" or "Religious Chauvinism". They believe that they cannot be wrong - they are "Mr & Ms Right", and their fisrt name is "Always" - that is in God's name, mind you!
Children at a tender and impressionable age, are thought and programmed from elementary classes, that it's their right to come up tops - by hook or crook. They are taught that it is okay to cheat - that it is their "God-given" privilege to cheat, as long as a man in robes and a serban says so in the name of "religion". Or a kris-brandishing maniac who's an "acclaimed" leader by virtue of birth! Ethics and morality are lost on these guys.
When they are rewarded for dismal performance, with cooked up results (different standards used), given opportunities when the more desrving are denied - they are already bribed and corrupted! Any which way you look at it , any man who can say that he deserves to be rewarded for mediocrity by virtue of "birthright", when excellence isn't, is already corrupted. We have a whole generation of them in Malaysia.
What else can we expect? Integrity or excellence doesn't mean anything - it was never part of the curriculum. The curriculum is twisted to have ego boosting and corrupting effect on the students! The result is "brain-dead" holier than thou automatons who have lost the ability to think. Corruption is the "ideal lifestyle" that is sought to be emulated (..... just look at how they glorify gangsters and robbers with awards).
The Malays have been corrupted (not that 'others' aren't - but in Malays of 'high standing', it is quite 'endemic'), without even them realizing it - no matter how much they indulge in penances.
Even the Tok Guru "rebels" in certain parties, are willing to negotiate with the corruptors, based on these very ideals of corruption. As long as it is for the greater glory of "Islam-as-I-say-tion". Their faith appears to be weak at best - they seem to thrive on the fears induced upon them by the corruptors. One Guru even mentioned about some political leaders being killed, people being deprived of 'things' and oil royalties being stolen, as reasons to work with the devils.
I wonder who's corrupting whom ....
These guys should just concentrate on the Google Ad above, and forget everything else : "Faraj Lebih Ketat Atasi faraj longgar dan berair. Suami pasti puas.Dijamin. RM67.00"
As you said earlier, Pete - it all boils down to conscience and "shame". When you have lost these two, you have lost all it means to be human. ===================================================== P.S. [the ad mentioned above was on the page ......... just couldn't help noticing it ;-D]
************************************* "What we need is a Leadership that is not only right where we are right, but right where we are wrong". - G.K. Chesterton.
"Lest the proponents of this "cooperation" forget, may I remind you - that the reason we oppose actions of a government isn't necessarily to vote it out, but to demand better governance." -The PAS "Cooperation" and Vote. ************************************** Admitting his mistake for issuing the denial, Mahfuz said he had received complaints and criticisms for his "lie" from party members and Pakatan Rakyat supporters. "Due to the action of certain individuals in the name of Pas and without the knowledge of the central working committee as they did not inform in detail to the party, Pas directed me to issue a denial of such meetings and negotiations," he said. "Therefore, with sincerity, I would like to apologise for my unintentional mistake. I call on the Pas leadership to be honest with members and supporters, and to work towards strengthening the current political coalition (Pakatan). - http://themalaysianinsider.com/ "Dalam masa yang sama ,katanya, PAS masih sanggup mengadakan muqabalah bukannya muzakarah dalam keadaan PAS ditekan yang sangat kuat oleh Umno. "Sebelum ini ada pemimpn PAS yang dibunuh, ada pemimpin PAS di Terengganu difitnah ... dan lain-lain lagi," ujarnya. - http://www.pas.org.my/pas/harakah/
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Dear Mr. President, Firstly, allow me to "applaud" you on your "ability to convince" the people that it wasn't "mu-zakar-ah", but "muqabalah" - whatever that means. No need to get defensive - we know what that means ......
Although I generally distrust politicians who double up as "Godmen" most (especially the ones with lots of "conservative attires"), I thought that you deserved the benefit of doubt. However, you have chosen to remove all doubts, and prove me right!
[What was the "pressure" that was imposed upon you by Umno? Did they "blackmail" you over something? The charges of "ada pemimpn PAS yang dibunuh" and "`dirompak' royati minyak," are quite grevious and could warrant a police report - was one made?]
Mahfuz, in humility (or maybe just common sense), has come out openly to apologize .... for the "misinformation" - mind you, it was for "following orders" so as to adhere to the chain of command. Who issued the order? Being the President and the "commander-in-chief", you are now in the line of fire - do the honourable thing and Apologize.
The following are some excerpts from some of my past entries, I now dedicate to you - and I begin (and end) with the words of Ravi Zacharias ..... ===============================
"I wonder, if there were to be a portrait of my soul or your soul, how would it best be depicted? Does not the conscience sting, when we think in these terms? Though we have engineered many ways of avoiding physical consequences, how does one cleanse the soul?
Today we find a limitless capacity to raise the question of evil as we see it outside ourselves, but often hold an equal unwillingness to address the evil within us. What do we do when we have committed a wrong that we are ashamed of? What can we do with those wrongful deeds that we can’t seem to erase from our consciences?
One way that many people deal with guilt is to cover it up. This can seem almost instinctive at times, as if something inside us says, “Hide it. Forget about it. No one can know.” But this puts us in a very precarious position, for not only are we dealing with guilt, but now we are dealing with the fear of being “found out.” When we add fear to our feelings of guilt we are adding apprehension to the remorse we are struggling to conceal. Just as a blackmailer is never satisfied, so the one who lives in fear with guilt ends up blackmailing his or her own heart to pay the mind. But the heart is never consoled, for the mind is never sufficiently paid.
Guilt that is concealed seldom stops with the one who harbors that hurt.Sooner or later that pain of fear and guilt is spread to others, particularly to those closest to us. “Victimless” crimes are an illusion, for deceit is a monster that needs constant feeding. It would be foolish for us to think that we can deal with guilt by somehow covering it up.
The moment that we cover our guilt we escalate the tension in our lives by adding the dimension of fear. We may then become people who seem okay on the outside, but inside we are struggling to maintain the facade." -Ravi Zacharias
".............."race or religion" based politics - this has been the curse that has been handed down to us by those who refused to accept and thus betrayed the the ideals that Dato' Onn Jaafar, the Father of UMNO, stood for. They instead killed every opportunity to build a nation based on "Values and Principles".
They preferred to play the race game that would be a short cut to power consolidated upon those politically "victorious", ie the Muslim Malay race....... How I wish I could hear the music of politicians shouting out against the subtle persecutions against the all Malaysians be they Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhists or Animists, be they of BN or the Opposition. -A Curse in the Malaysians' Embrace. ........................................................................
"The spirit of Merdeka has been subverted by racists and the religious zealots over the years, and has been replaced by chauvinism – racial and religious..... Unfortunately, we are a society so paralyzed by symptomatic solutions one has to wonder whether we will learn anything from this mindless atrocity.......
Having failed in its shortcut to an economic miracle, the advocates of the system (clamouring for issues and a new agenda to perpetuate their greed and envy) the now choose to preach intolerance, “arabisation”, and religiosity in the name of God, to further isolate, and “drug into a stupor” a beautiful people that was once open to change.
Even if we aren't too accurate in our assessment, much of what has passed off for Islamisation by the govt was nothing more than frothy God-talk, mindless, thoughtless, and in its exploitation of people, heartless. The “one upmanship” practised by the various institutions that espouse religious chauvinism, is in fact a pathetic display of their failures and insecurities...... Malaysia today is a nation that has lost its conscience. " "Where is the Spirit of Merdeka?" ......................................................................
These R&R factors have been and will be the overriding factors in determining the direction that the nation takes in the next few years. These next few years (probably 10-15 yrs) will determine what the future holds for all Malaysians. As things are, the politicians, clerics and the people appear to lack the courage to face the truth and abandon the old feudal, racist and religiosity that is today being used to subvert the nation. The future does not look too appealing, any which way we look at it. The day when all else is lost, let us pray that there will still be hope. - The Overbearing R&R Factor. ......................................................................
The “sandiwara” of “strife” will be created again as was done repeatedly by the powers that be, since independence from British rule. -A Malay Mindset For a Better Malaysia.
"It will not do to cling to the cause and wish the result away. Reality does not play mind games. What is more, to anesthetize the mind in order to abort what comes to birth when wrong ideas are conceived and borne in the womb of culture, will only kill the very life-giving force of the nation that nurtures the idea. We must learn, in the words of one cultural commenter, to live as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves." -Ravi Zacharias ##################################
******************************************** "That the Malays have been taken for a ride for far too long, since Merdeka till now, without anyone realizing it, or know how to solve this problem affecting the Malays, so that they are not trampled upon."-"Melayu-lah", "…AND REALIZED HOW THEY HAVE ....?", Malaysia Today.
"It's easy to mock people like us for saying things like "I will never die for this country"; it's hard to accept that this country has never given people like us a reason to die for it." - John Lee, Infernal Ramblings ********************************************
Nik Aziz, never really articulates his ideas too well - although he's quite straighforward in his statements. His statements are usually quite "simple" ("simplistic" actually, to many ....) - it doesn't go far beyond one word - "Islam". (For the life of me, I cannot figure out what that means, considering the fact that he cannot bring himself to agree with ideas of "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"). I could be wrong here - but in his book, it probably means - "No to Inul, Transvestites, High-heels/ Lipstick, sexy successful women". "Sodomists" (ask MahaDet what that means), graft, corruption, equal rights and "reason" are probably not okay too- but we don't speak of such things ..... Last he says,"'Umno should dissolve, PAS should also dissolve. Set up another party on condition that it is based on Islam'. Although he speaks of an "impossibility" (probably in jest), to pour ridicule & scorn on the "mu-zakar-ah" or "mu-raba-lah" (or was it "muqabalah"?), - does he mean that in order to "unite" Malays, they must dissolve PAS to create another "PAS"? If it is not to create another "PAS", is there something wrong with PAS as it is? Doesn't he realize that he's sending out wrong signals? Umno has however decided to play up the issue to reinforce the "emergency" in the state of affairs of the Malays - who badly need to be emancipated from their mental slavery" as a result of 50 yrs of "freedom" under BN rule. The bogeyman here, is of course the "Kafir", as quite eloquently articulated by the "brave Malay Nationalist" who goes by the pseudonym - "Melayu-lah" - such great thinking faculties .......
What "Malay Unity" means to some is "the unopposed dominance of a single party, so as to stifle debate and dissent, and perpetuation of elitism, crony capitalism and oligarchy". From their perspective, it is the only way forward for their "Religion & Race" - in total submission to "Leadership" of the captain of the vessel.
What do we want for ourselves? - one might ask .... Yes - We want "Melayu Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang". What do we have before us? It's none other than "Melayu Terkilan" - which is interpreted as being due to the conspiracy that presents as "attacks" from the local and foreign bogeymen. And creation of the "terkilan" works so well for Pirates, there's no real need for the above slogan to materialize.
Umno's unrelenting quest for "dominance" as the sole heir to the throne - at whatever the cost (despite MahaDet's sentimental "confessions" lately), has today led to further destabilization of the nation. Umno and the people it claims to represent are at loggerheads with each other. So much so, it appears to be at odds with every conceivable institution of justice and democracy. All these institutions of democracy are supposed to be "in his majesty's service"! It appears to be a game of - "either I rule, or I destroy what has been built, for you to take over". This also includes the subversion of unity within the Pakatan, which is the people's mandate. All these are quite consistent with the "divide and rule" or "subversion/destabilization for stability" or even "war for peace" creed, by which some parties rule. This, in "Pirate-speak", is the so-called "Malay-IslamUnity"; of which Nasharudin of PAS asks "What is so wrong ....?" (Sigh ......) Yep - such "brilliance and clarity of thoughts" is hard to come by .... I won't say anymore.
Things are so bad that Malaysia is on the verge of an officially declared "emergency" that would require suspending of the parliament - so as to bring forth some "gunboat diplomacy" as in 1969. Accordingly, the issues discussed by the online media include the below:- "the Conference of Rulers, could determine the outcome of Malaysia's deepening political crisis, which has stoked murmurings of a possible snap election and also the possibility that a state of emergency could be declared". -Royals Start To Flex Their Muscles, The Malaysian Insider. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out who the scapegoat, should the "Emergency" be officially be declared .....
Quite sad that Pirates seek to build a democracy that choses to ignore (read "subvert") the very institutions of Democracy, upon which they are supposed to build a nation. They don't see it as subversion or racism or "religious chauvinism", though. It is called none other than "Ketuanan Melayu", "Unity in Sodomy" or "Emergency out of Love". With geniuses like "Melayu-lah", Nasharudin and Hadi at the forefront of "Unity" through "mu-zakar-ah", is it any wonder as to why Pirates have been having having a gala time in Malaysia?
Now - Isn't it an oxymoron for a Pirate of the Constitution (of all people), to wonder if we "love" the country?
"We are all the beneficiaries of the policies of those early people who lead this country. The systems and policies they initiated were excellent. If they seem not to work today it is not because they were bad but it is because we do not have their caliber. We have become very selfish and too materialistic. This country has given us much. Is it still the country we love? I wonder! " - Mahathir, CheDet.com ********************************************
“Maybe I should stop reminiscing about the good old days...... but I wish things are much better than today...... I just want what is mine.” - Benny Lim, Canteena, Bangsar
********************************************************* Speech by YBM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at The Bankers Club Business Luncheon Forum on Tuesday, 15th July 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen, On the night of March 8, like many of you I watched in disbelief as the results rolled in. Through the early hours of the morning, we all felt the political ground shift beneath us, whatever our affiliations, whatever our hopes. It gradually became clear that the 12th General Elections had changed the political landscape of the country, and that we had been thrown, not nudged, into a new era. Each of us here will remember the feelings we went through that night, the fears and hopes we felt. But four months later, where are we? Have our hopes materialized, our fears been confirmed?
2. Four months after the momentous election results of March 8, we find ourselves in a perilous impasse, in danger of losing our bearings, and seemingly unable to see a way forward through a situation of unbelievable fluidity. I don't pretend to have a lamp to pierce this fog. Instead, I thought that today we might try to establish a common description of what is going on so that we can have a more fruitful discussion afterwards of what is the way forward. I always prefer the dialogue to the lecture.
3. Thus let me try to achieve a perspective on what happened then, where we are now, and how we can move forward. The perspective I am going to offer is from the trenches of the party political struggle that I have been involved in. As I hope will become clear to you, the present struggle I am involved in for the soul of UMNO is very much a struggle for the future of this nation. 4. From the perspective of the BN and UMNO the result of the polls was the biggest setback in our history. In one stroke four states emerged in Opposition control and we lost our 2/3rds majority in Parliament. I said at the time this put UMNO in a state of Emergency. The Party's losses would seriously hamper our ability to govern:
a) The Federal government was now weakened in its ability to raise funds, coordinate with the States, and implement policies. Barisan lost control of 3 states from which 75% of the GDP originates. b) With its failure in the Malay heartland states of Kedah and Kelantan, UMNO lost its legitimacy as the natural party of the Malays. Simultaneously MCA and MIC lost their leadership roles over the other major races of this country and Gerakan was more or less wiped out. A political system that had maintained stability for fifty years had been reduced to ruins. c) With the loss of its 2/3rds majority in Parliament, the government would now face great difficulty passing the kind of inventive and bold measures that we had taken in the past to set up institutions such as Petronas and Felda. As a developing country we need such flexibility and decisiveness. More so amidst the extraordinary global challenges of our time.
Causes of our loss 5. In a speech in Gua Musang a month after March 8, I listed three core reasons for UMNO's loss of legitimacy and what we must do:
a) Democracy had been suppressed in Umno. Via requirements such as the nominations quota for senior positions the Party prevented the renewal of talent and leadership . We must restore democracy in UMNO, and begin by restoring power to the grassroots to select their leaders at every level up to the President b) We had failed to articulate a vision and a set of policies that transcends race. While defending its traditional vision Umno must be the party that sponsors Malay leadershp to win the trust of all Malaysians, a national party that promotes the welfare of all. c) Too many of our leaders had been arrogant and corrupt. People of all races saw us as being high-handed, out of touch and ill mannered. We must recover our humility, our spirit of service and solidarity with the rakyat and among ourselves.
6. On that occasion I expressed wonder that a month after the Election the leadership remained in denial about the root causes of UMNO's crisis, and hence unable to address those causes. I said Party leaders continued to block discussion and to block my call for an EGM for us to reflect deeply together, as a party, on where we had gone wrong. 7. I did not imagine that four months later, the leadership would be in even deeper denial, and would seem even more determined to prevent any party-wide accounting of what had gone wrong. Over the last months, as have suffered massive price hikes, business confidence has plummeted, billions have been wiped off our stock markets and capital has drained from our economy, the Malaysian public has grown increasingly worried as the leadership crisis continues.
8. In any normal political system, having shown such poor results, this leadership should have resigned with heads bowed. Instead we have now been handed a Transition Plan to take place in 2010, ignoring the party elections to come this December, and treating Party positions as transferable personal property. They forget that party positions are elected by the combined membership of 3 million, not inherited between 2 persons. This display of entitlement, this subversion of democratic process and legality coming after our members have expressed their demand to be heard, gives cause for people to suspect that our current leadership has lost the plot. Denial is dangerous
9. The election was a political disaster for the Barisan government. Viewed from a historical perspective, it may have raised some hope that democracy would be reinvigorated. The easy dominance of the ruling coalition seemed to have been broken decisively.
10. That dominance had served us well in difficult phases of our history, when we faced challenges of development, modernization and nation building. It enabled us to administer one of the most stable postcolonial governments seen anywhere and to oversee steady, equitable economic development. It gave us the power to restructure our economy to promote growth and equity in a challenging multiracial context. However that same long dominance had made the party complacent and flabby.
11. The Elections showed that the Malaysian public is ahead of its political parties in demanding democratic reform and accountability. Many hoped that this would be an impetus for the BN component parties to reform themselves and for the government to finally fulfill its promises. But they also feared that the new political landscape would cause instability and stunt growth when we could least afford it, in the middle of an economic downturn.
12. Whether the present circumstances become a blessing or a curse to us depends on how the present leadership responds to it. Sadly, four months on this much is clear: our leaders lag behind in adapting to the challenges of the new political landscape, they remain locked in denial and in personal politics.
13. Instead of heeding the message of reform sent by voters and by its own grassroots the leadership has dug in to perpetuate itself with "business as usual" practices. On its present course UMNO is risking not only its own survival but also the future of the nation. The Party leadership needs to realize that we have reached a major decision point. UMNO cannot go back to the way it had been conducting itself. It must return to being the party of the common people, a political party that was also a broad social movement calling on the idealism of millions. At present, we risk destroying the party and plunging the nation into a spiral of decline.
The imperative of reform, the challenges before us:
14. Let me stand back a little from the day-to-day politics that I have been engaged in to give a more general description of our condition, so that we can think together about what might be done. a) The nation is in a state of crisis that threatens to go well into 2010 if the so-called Transition Plan becomes fait accompli. The BN is decimated, with UMNO remaining the only sizeable party. The Opposition remains a contradictory assortment of parties with little to bind them but the personality of their de facto leader. Notwithstanding the hype of crossovers, they are in no position to take over. UMNO is the party with the history, tradition and maturity to lead the government. For this it must reform successfully.
b) Meanwhile, UMNO appears trapped with a weakened leadership that seems to lurch from crisis to crisis. The Party's democratic processes have so atrophied that it is now neither able to hold its leadership accountable nor to renew that leadership. Any organisation, be it a corporation or a sepak takraw team or the United Nations, that finds itself in this condition is in deep trouble. The root of this crisis is of course that democracy has withered in UMNO. Democratic practices within the party have been subverted one by one over the years so that now a small group holds enormous power over millions of dis-empowered members. The top down nature of power within Umno ensures the long survival and indeed the recycling of "warlords". These same people are rewarded with government positions, which they use to fortify their party positions. Only a genuine movement from the grassroots can retrieve the Party now. I have tried to lead such a movement by going all over the country to meet local leaders and ordinary party members to discuss the situation with them.
c) Our key institutions are at breaking point. These include the judiciary, the police, sectors of the civil service and our schools and universities. They have been on a downward slide for a while. It is time we acknowledge this challenge openly. Under a more authoritarian government it might have been possible to carry on with weak institutions, and indeed that same authoritarianism is what sapped those institutions in the first place. In our new context, those weaknesses just show up relentlessly. Put together institutional weakness, weak leadership and increasingly powerful public opinion, and the result is a crippling loss of confidence in our key institutions. Many of the embarrassments and policy reversals that you read about weekly are the result of such institutional weakness. These problems cannot be hidden anymore. We are in danger of going into a decline from which we shall not emerge for a very long time.
d) After fifty years of independence our Constitution has not yet been established as a living document among the people. To the extent it plays a role in public debate, it is used partially, rhetorically and without understanding of its intent. The very principle of constitutionality and rule of law has eroded, so that even in political parties such as Umno, there is little understanding of what it means to be a constitutionally governed organisation. The implications of this are great, not least in the matters of race and religion that are our constant challenge. If we are to emerge as a confident, united people not swayed by racial or religious rabble-rousing, we must look at ways to ensure that our leaders and our people internalise the principles of the Constitution.
e) Our politics remain a politics of personalities rather than of issues and ideas. Of patronage rather than results. When personality dominated politics degenerates you see the destruction of reputations, intrigues, spy scandals, succession plans and whatnot as stratagems to resolve leadership contests, rather than the Constitutional and democratically provided avenue of seeking an elected mandate. When group dominated by personality politics comes under challenge, the leaders dig in, call for "unity" – meaning they are not to be challenged -- and hold the country hostage to their career plans. f) Our economic policy remains haphazard, driven by whims and special interest projects rather than by a cohesive design geared to shape areas of distinct national competitive advantage. The stillborn "Corridor" projects do not seem to have been thought out as part of a cohesive national economic strategy. Like so much we have done recently, they seem ad hoc and uncoordinated in their selection of specialisations. The term economic corridor now inspires skepticism rather than confidence. Meanwhile, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), which used to coordinate and plan our economic strategy, has been largely bypassed under this administration. We need to staff the EPU with talented professionals again, not political appointees.
15. There is one thing each of the problems I have just described has in common: each represents a deficit in norms and institutions. Each of them demands that we renew our commitment to rigorous policy process, to the law and the rule of law. Each is a call to reform.
Ladies and Gentlemen: 16. I would love to get your ideas on my own thoughts on such ideas as the reform or Educational and Medical financing, the improvement of our cities, a renewed emphasis on rural development, and how we can return economic development initiative to the states, together with the funds to undertake those initiatives. We can talk about decentralizing economic growth, eradicating rural poverty and returning investor confidence.
17. We can talk about these during question time if anyone is interested.
18. But recent events confirm we are now in such a deep political crisis that I want to use my remaining time to press a single point: the need to prepare ourselves to retrieve the basic understandings, discipline and practices that constitute a nation.
19. We must reform and strengthen core institutions: the judiciary, security services, the schools and the civil service. These form the core institutional capability of a country. Without this in place we are in danger of taking one step forward only to take two steps back. Right now we are looking at the frightening possibility of seeing those backward steps happen before our eyes.
20. This emphasis on institutional reform applies to UMNO as much as to organizations such as the Judiciary and the Economic Planning Unit (EPU). In each case we will have to work hard to: a) re-clarify the norms, and attach clear sanctions and goals to them. b) The law must be enforced rigorously and impartially, with the checks and balances between institutions restored c) Lead, educate and train people to internalise these norms and practices. This requires a deep reform of our declining Education system, and it means we need to look at how we train our civil servants. d) Meanwhile, we should look at improving the way our political institutions reflect law-governed democratic practice. The constitutions of the political parties should be made to adhere without exception to the Societies Act. Unlawful restrictions in party constitutions should be challenged and removed. e) We need to arrest the decline in the quality of people seeking employment in these key institutions.
21. The reform of our basic institutions requires credible, committed leadership. For a while now we have had leaders more fascinated with the flashy hardware of modernity than attentive to the invisible infrastructure effective, trusted national institutions.
22. As we ensure we are doing the basic things right, we can be confident that we can once more invent the strategies and institutions to enable us to thrive in a world economy that has been completely transformed in the years since we first dared to raid its centres of power and deal our own terms with its corporate behemoths.
23. The mold is broken, the vessel split. There is no returning to the political scenario pre March 8. This is the frightening and also exhilarating thing about where we stand. We could be standing at the edge of long-term instability and decay. Or we could be on the very edge of an opportunity to re-establish ourselves as democratic, united and confident country ready once more to make our own destiny among the nations. We are in unusual times, calling for unusual effort and boldness in doing the right thing. I ask you all to join me in doing everything you can to make sure that the second scenario comes true for us all.
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