University of Umno ranks low in Malaysia
If Umno is a university, as the Kedah MB says, it’s worth asking what kind of education the party is giving its members.
One can only hazard a guess as to what lessons the University of Umno might offer.
Here’s a probable reading list:
- International fundraising and secret donations: A how-to guide
- Best places in the world to store illicit funds
- Loyalty vs intelligence: Key traits to consider when hiring henchmen
- Fear and racism: A dictator’s guide to governing
- Controlling the media and squashing dissent (with a bonus chapter on raising a cyber army)
- 1001 ways to waste taxpayers’ money
Jokes aside, there is a key problem with Bashah’s qualifications but whether or not he has a university education isn’t it. There are many types of intelligence and going to university is just one way of obtaining knowledge and wisdom. Besides, learning is a lifelong journey and experience can take a person far. Even theory must have practical applications, after all, and someone stuck in an ivory tower can be just as incompetent as someone without any education at all.
The problem is that Umno teaches questionable lessons at best and terrible lessons at worst. This is a party that has not only deviated from its original course, but is simultaneously destroying the very social fabric Malaysia was founded on.
Malaysia was created as a federation of states not only for Malay interest. It is for everyone, just as freedom and liberty are rights designated for all. But the fundamental principles of respect, harmony, and mutual acceptance are being shattered by divisive policies meant to keep certain people in power.
In any organisation, followers tend to take cues from their leaders. If Umno is a university, we must ask what exactly its members are learning from their higher-ups. Is it to enforce blind loyalty at the expense of progress, justice, and truth? Is it to ostracise those with opposing opinions? Is it to reject critical thinking, to champion self-interest, to pull an entire country down with scandals?
What Bashah doesn’t understand is that education isn’t about filling your brains with knowledge alone. Learning is meant to empower you to chart a destiny, to nurture your soul, to help you become the best person you could possibly be. After graduating from the University of Umno, has he pursued integrity? Has he pursued justice, liberty and honour?
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Being a leader is about more than just having experience and skills. It’s also about being someone people want to follow, someone people can trust, and someone who has what it takes to inspire people to believe that he can take them to great heights.