YOURSAY ‘That NEP will fail were foreseen by many. But they were the minority.’

The Analyser: Malaysiakini columnist KJ John, you hit the nail on the head with your comment about individual opinion versus group opinion. As I have often said, Malaysians of all races are very repressive people. The social structure of all three ethnic groups is much the same.

There is always someone looking over your shoulder to ensure you toe (the insecurity) line. In typically Asian fashion this repression is made to appear like it’s a strength, ie the strength of the family.

I come from a background which holds the family in much less regard. Children leave home early and become much more independent in both thought and action. In contrast, I regard the Asian scenario as quite unhealthy.

When parents insist on making career and lifestyle choices for their children on the basis that they are too immature to make their own choices there is something seriously wrong. What is wrong is that the parent's repression is why the children are so immature. I realise that this sort of control is much reduced, but it does still exist.

Other symptoms of this family scenario are - the offspring who still live at home through their 30s. Of course, the excuse given is economic. Yet is it? Young people from "outstation" manage to do it perfectly well and are much better people for making the break.

Then there are the individuals who proudly boast that all their family will vote for Party A. Holy mother of god, have you no understanding of democracy? Have you no respect for your family as individuals?

Malaysia hates individuality. With Islam where everyone must toe the line, the consequences of being different are dire. But the same pressures apply in both Chinese and Indian families.

I strongly suspect that the underlying reason for the basic similarity of all three races stems from intra-family repression. That’s the reason why insecurity is so widespread.

LifeFlier: KJ John has brought up the interesting subject of statistics, though it is a little vague about how it is going to be applied to the concept of ‘moderate’ movement or thinking.

Let's look at what consists of a person in general, and pick four main examples which we can measure by judging one’s behaviour:

a) Aggressiveness (the courage or energy to drive us, a consistency of willpower to move us, industriousness)

b) Intelligence (skills or knowledge to get thing done, create stuffs or solve a problem)

c) Ethics (A moral compass or inherent conscience, no way one could discard them altogether, it is always there, just whether we care much to heed it. It should be the fundamental law to guard social orders, political progressivism and civilisation, guard against us from self-destruction by our own hands)

d) Altruism (You think of others’ happiness more than yours)

Together all the above forms the level of wisdom of a person. If we use the above four measurable criteria as our yardstick for determining moderation, and follow KJ's explanation on the ‘extremism’ which falls in both 2.5 percent tail ends of a normal distribution.

We have two extreme groups for each criteria, good extreme and bad extreme. You will notice if indeed Malaysian leaders possess all positive extreme of the above criteria, Malaysia are blessed for next few centuries.

However, take the example of the Ibrahim Ali case, he definitely is on the positive extreme of ‘aggressiveness’ but all the remaining three are falling into the very negative extreme end.

Statistically, you can expect 95 percent of silent Malaysian to be moderate, meaning most of us fall into mid-band of range, but the country won't progress without that 2.5 percent of people holding the leadership role.

Now the question is: should 95 percent pick the negative extreme of 2.5 percent as leaders or otherwise?

Prudent: KJ John, I have one simple question for you since you said you have a Christian heritage: What if after studying the facts about the majority, the majority is factually wrong?

Even if one appreciate or love the majority, can one accept and go along with the majority even though it is clear that the majority have been deceived on vital issues?

The normal distribution (we studied it critically in Analysis 101) is for reference only. In application, it's the 2.5 percent or less at either end who are going to drive change, any change. Even a single individual (your I, me and myself) can bring revolutionary change.

Economic/political power distribution is not a bell-curve but actually a declining curve (or pyramid) with power concentrated in about 20 percent or less of the population even in a liberal democracy.

Your middle ground is going to preserve a colourless and static status quo and the status quo in Malaysia is not preservable! Besides your '10 commandments' will be honoured mainly in the breach.

KJ John, for the readers' sake, I will answer my question. In history and in the Bible, the majority (the left 90 percent or more of your model) have virtually always been wrong. Example:

1) Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), although supported by the majority, did not deliver the expected results. The majority failed to factor in corruption and identify why the Malays fell behind despite being favoured by the British, Japanese and Umno.

That it was due to genetics and Malay politeness as averred in 'The Malay Dilemma' is believable only by the extreme left of the bell-curve of the normal distribution of intelligence.

That the NEP will fail were foreseen by many. But they were the minority. This resulted in billions wasted on a palliative policy i.e. treating the symptoms, not the disease.

2) In the Bible, the majority were virtually always wrong. For example, the people of the world before the Flood were making merry and doing evil despite prophetic warnings. Only Noah, (who heeded God) and his family - eight persons - survived.

A final point - your article is apparently advocating 'majority moderate think', which is worse than 'group think'.

Haveagreatday: At a teacher training institute, the administration is allegedly dictating to student teachers that the president of the Students' Representative Council must be a Muslim bumiputera.

When future teachers are inculcated with such narrow and racist world view from a young age, I dread to think of what they will do in schools many moons down the road.

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