Politicians Vs Morality

In Aristotilean terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos.

The ethos is the moral character, the source of his ability to persuade.

The pathos is the ability to touch feelings, to move people emotionally.

The logos has the ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually

~ Mortimer Jerome Adler.

All week, I have been struck by the actions and words of our leaders, particularly in the political realm. I have been trying to understand what motivates them and why I have felt such disdain for the majority of them.........locally, nationally and internationally. So often, I find myself shaking my head, thinking "are these people in their right mind?"

So soon after taking over as the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin found himself squirming to get out of a hole he dug for himself for lashing out at everyone for "twisting" his words for calling the Chinese "ungrateful". On Sunday, in an interview with Mingguan Malaysia (the weekend edition of the notorious Utusan Malaysia), he was quoted as follows when asked about the minority votes in Bukit Gantang.

Q: Tetapi bukankah setiap kali pilihan raya kecil, permintaan kaum bukan Melayu dipenuhi, malah di Bukit Gantang walaupun peruntukan RM1juta diberikan tetapi kaum Cina tidak juga menyokong BN?[...]Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan.

Sure, I did not score top marks for my SPM bahasa paper, but I'm infallibly certain the Chinese media had not erred in "twisting" the words of the new DPM.

To add insult to injury, the fine balance in the multiracial 1Malaysia concept initiated by our new Prime Minister has hit the wall barely a week from its inception by the inflammatory "Bangkitlah Melayu" headline in the UMNO-controlled newpaper, Utusan Malaysia. It had insidiously called for greater unity amongst the race to rise against the other races. It is my strongest opinion that it merely serves as racial incitement, no more no less.

It seems that there is a terrible imbalance between morality, pathos and actions. It seems to me that we the voters often get swept up by the emotionally driven words we hear our leaders spew, and vote them in hoping that there is the morality and action behind the feeling words. It's like a house of cards though isn't it? We get sucked in by the eloquence and then it's too late. We're stuck with a leader who obviously is feeding their own egos.........their own desire to stand up on top of the hill surrounded by adoration and false fawning, which continues to nurture their false integrity.

When things go wrong ........... as in the current Perak leadership tussle and internationally, the Thai saga and the aged-Iraq war, there seems to be no one with a spine who will own up to it. All we are left with is the reassuring words of Abdullah Badawi, Thaksin and George Bush and their host of spineless cahoots.

"It's bad."

After I clutch my stomach and hold down the urge to puke, all I can think of to reply is, "duh!" As of this morning, I can't think of one example of a balanced effective leader. What do we do now?

We voted "these" leaders in. How do we find our way out?

Year 2013 seems too distant .............