ARE WE LOST, IN THAT WE ARE AT A PLACE WE WOULD RATHER NOT BE?

Umar Mukhtar

When former Trade & Industry minister Rafidah Aziz appealed for our moral compass to be reset, she assumed that we are lost in our ways. She also assumed that we do have a compass but it is pointed the wrong way. What if we don’t have a working compass and that’s the reason we are lost in the first place?

Like in a real life situation, the one who holds the compass does not really ask for your opinion whether or not he needs to calibrate the compass. You just follow his lead. Chances are you don’t even know if you are lost. So whether he has a compass or not doesn’t really matter.

What really matters is your trust in your leader’s judgement. If you feel that he is going the wrong way, you dump him. Assuming that he unwittingly took the wrong turn because of his faulty compass, reduce his culpability of his stupid actions. At the end of the day, a man is responsible for his actions, and you deserve the leader you get.

The complication only arises when you treat your leader as your compass. If what Rafidah meant by resetting is to not use that compass anymore, she is spot on. Why go the roundabout way of saying things? Is she too is afraid of the un-calibrated compass hurting her? So like many who love their rice bowl, let’s play it safe and allude to calibrating an inanimate object rather than dumping the wayward leader itself.

An objective compass point is only for reference and you configure your way from there. So, even if the compass is well-calibrated, it is still garbage-in-garbage-out. The reason I am making a big deal about this is to underscore the fact that unconsciously Rafidah’s comfort zone is now outdated, just because she loves the old compass and refuses to throw it away.

A real compass has fixed magnetic north, while a moral compass can be adjusted to suit the situation. Like when the Approved Permits for cars were issued, it was adjusted accordingly. So while the present leaders purportedly have a compass, they are only used as convenient tools to say that they had relied on their readings.

Many of us are like that. In a world where GPS is the way to go, we stick to the old rusty compass. Maybe because it is a more personable tool to a fault, which also reminds us of our race, our prejudices and our fears. Maybe for sentimental reasons, Rafidah still wants it to be our cure-all. Dulu, kini dan selamanya.

Sorry, Rafidah, I know what you meant but it is time to call a spade a spade. Why allow a guy to paddle his own canoe on our account and make us look like fools lapping up everything thrown at us?

A compass doesn’t decide on destinations, nowadays, just follow the money!