Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR(K.L)
Tarikh/Date : 28/07/93
Tajuk/Title : HARVARD CLUB DINNER
Firstly I wish to thank the Harvard Club of Malaysia,
the organiser of this gathering, for inviting me tonight to
share with you some thoughts on the topic 'Towards a Fully
Moral and Ethical Society in Malaysia'. In one of my
earlier speeches on 'Malaysia: The Way Forward', I had
identified nine key challenges which Malaysia must face and
manage in order to be a fully developed country. Amongst
these, the most challenging is to establish a fully moral
and ethical society, in which the citizens are strongly
imbued with religious, spiritual and high moral values. My
talk today will revolve around the imperatives of a fully
moral and ethical society.
2. In a developed society, the members should no longer
receive passively his cultural heritage without carefully
studying the various implications of that heritage. This is
because one's total cultural heritage, which includes most
importantly the ethical and moral value system or codes,
will determine how we function and whether we fail or we
succeed as a society. It is altogether possible that the
values we inherit are the very reasons for our failure. If
we do not study them properly and make corrections where
necessary, we may be condemned to fail forever. Thus, for
70 years the Communist system of values brought disaster and
poverty to the countries practising it.
3. It is not that Communist values are all bad. They
profess to believe in the equality of all men. But in
their attempt to achieve this, they killed all individual
initiatives and efforts. Bereft of these, they succeeded
only in achieving equal poverty and equal misery. However
the leaders reserve the right to enjoy better living
standards, including luxuries. And so they, the leaders,
became oblivious to the disastrous results of their
Communist ethics and system.
4. Clearly with the Communist, the ethics preached was not
the same as what was practised. But then this is true not
only of Communists and Communism. Every system of ethics,
including religious ethics, suffer this dichotomy between
what is preached and what is practised. As a result, the
ethical values of a society fail to bring about the good
results that they promise.
5. It is therefore important that we do not just focus on
ethical values, but more importantly we scrutinise the
practice of these values. And scrutiny must be followed by
corrective measures.
6. In business, generally, we all know what constitute
good ethics. Trust in management, for instance, is one of
them. This is because no one can do everything himself.
Everyone from shareholders to the most junior executive and
supervisors must trust others to carry out varying grades of
responsibilities. All these responsibilities contribute to
the total performance. Unless everyone can be trusted,
management will fail. Systems have been devised to
circumvent this need to trust. But there is just no such
system. And so trust remains an essence of good management.
7. So also are honesty, sincerity, discipline, diligence,
dedication and other values which are part of good ethics.
If these values are practised, even the least promising
enterprise will succeed, or at the very least will not
suffer serious failures. And where these sterling values
prevail corrective measures can always be easily undertaken
with ev ery chance of success.
8. We all work best when we are overseen by others. It is
when we think no one is looking or is likely to find out
that we become tempted. A weak character will then commit
crimes which otherwise he is not inclined to. One of the
most important teachings of Islam and also of most religions
is the presence of God everywhere. For the faithful there
is nothing that he does that is free from Allah's scrutiny.
This reduces his temptation. He may still do it of course.
But he does it with fear of the final retribution. I
believe that one of the causes of massive commercial crimes
in some developed societies is the total breakdown of
religious faith. There is a feeling that if you can get
away with it, then do it. There is no such thing as God's
retribution, only worldly retribution. And that, most
managers think they can manage.
9. However, professing religious faith alone is generally
not enough even for the pious. What we see of a person is
often not what he is. And so we must propagate the practice
of good ethics, not just because it is good for society but
because it is good for the practitioner. Let us admit it --
we are all basically self-centred and selfish. 'What is in
it for me' is the most frequent question we ask.
Fortunately, what is good for society is often good for the
individual. On the other hand, the selfish good of one
person is seldom durable. But the good of the community is
more permanent, even for the individual.
10. A dishonest misappropriation may be immediately
beneficial (good) for the individual. But it will damage
the good of the rest, be it the company, the society or the
nation. But if the nation prospers, the individuals will
generally prosper too. And if the prosperity is due to
honest work by everyone largely for himself, then such a
company or society or nation will be trusted in business of
all kinds and will prosper. On the other hand the dishonesty
of one person may affect the good name of the whole
community, so that every member will be branded and
distrusted and so the whole community along with the
culprit will suffer.
11. Clearly good ethics pays. It pays for the individual
and it pays for the community. And it pays more
permanently. Thus, if we admit that we are all selfish,
that very selfishness will be better served by practising
good ethics for the general good.
12. The importance of good ethics cannot be over estimated.
The individual, the community and the nation need good
ethics. Without it everyone, without exception, will suffer.
Indeed the decline and fall of great empires are invariably
due to ethical deterioration. And the problems that are
being faced by many developed nations today are in part at
least due to the decline of ethical and moral values in
their societies.
13. Yet ethics is hardly ever taught as a regular subject
whether in schools or universities. It is assumed that
everyone knows what constitute good ethics and everyone will
accept them unquestioningly. But this is not necessarily
so. One community's set of good ethical values is not the
same as another's. Yet we know that the ethical values of
different societies affect their performance. Some
societies succeed and some fail. If those successes and
failures are examined, it will be found that they are very
closely linked to the set of ethical values that they
believe in or, more importantly, they practise.
14. But that is not all. The ethical values of all
societies change with time. These changes usually take place
unconsciously and are often the result of the changed
environment resulting from the very practice of the original
ethical values. Thus, a society or a whole nation may
prosper as a result of the practice of certain ethical
values. The prosperity then influences the ethical values
of that society and causes them to change. If the changes
involve the acceptance of a new set of values which
adversely affects the performance of that society, then the
prosperity recedes. Thus, a great nation or empire will
fall as a result of the changes in the ethical values of
society.
15. Clearly ethical values are very complex and cannot be
left to 'natural processes' for their propagation in
society. Ethical values need to be thoroughly studied and
deliberately propagated if a society wishes to prosper.
16. Malaysia wishes to prosper. It has a vision. It wants
to be a fully developed country by 2020. To achieve this
vision selected ethical values must be propagated. It must
be propagated within the whole society. It must be
propagated, and selectively propagated, among certain
critical groups which are expected to play a major role in
the development of the nation. The managers, the executives
and the professionals together constitute one such group.
17. There is a tendency to focus on one simple quality or
ethical value which will ensure the desired results.
Unfortunately, one single quality cannot ensure good
results, no matter how universally this quality is regarded
by human society as a whole. There is just no such magic
quality. Thus, hard work is usually regarded as a virtue.
But if hard work is dedicated to doing the wrong thing, to
criminality for example, good results can hardly be
expected.
18. What is needed is a set of values made up usually of
all the universally accepted virtues. And there are many of
these. They include among others diligence, honesty,
reasonable patience, discipline, determination, dedication,
grit, concentration, attention to details, ability to work
with others, a degree of humility, etc.
19. There are so many of these that it is impossible for
anyone to have them all. Fortunately, it is possible for an
individual or a whole nation to succeed reasonably well
without having to have and to practise all the ethical
virtues.
20. Since Malaysia wishes to prosper, ethics must be
studied, must be taught and must be propagated. And nowhere
must it be propagated more than among those most concerned
with spearheading the country's development -- the
executives, in the Government and in the private sector.
21. Success cannot be guaranteed but certainly the chances
of failure can be reduced. There can be no doubt that the
practice of good ethics can reduce the chances of failure
even in the short term, and certainly in the long term. We
know of nations where corruption is rife. We know of
nations where nothing moves. We know of nations where
nothing is predictable. And we know that none of these
nations have done well. Of course there are nations with
high morality which have also failed. But history has
proven that by and large ethical and moral values have a
positive contribution to make towards the success of
peoples, nations and even empires. We cannot do ourselves
any harm if we, you and I and the other decision-makers in
this country, were to appreciate the role of ethics and
morality, and to practise them in the course of our daily
struggle for a better Malaysia.
22. I hope the issues I have raised will serve as food for
thought for all of you present today. Thank you for your
kind attention.
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