Building a culture of trust

Recently, a few students from a local university were complaining to me about their lecturer who teaches Islamic Studies to the Muslim students and Moral Studies to non-Muslim students.

Apparently, the lecturer tells his Islamic Studies class that they are the lucky ones, for Islam is the true religion and heaven is reserved for Muslims only. The lecturer also has a habit of belittling the religion and the God(s) of non-Muslims.

However, when the lecturer teaches Moral Studies, he tells the non-Muslim students the importance of being united and working together in a multi-racial, multi-religious nation like Malaysia.

"Respect one another, focus on our similarities and accept our differences," he often reminds them.

Unbeknown to him, the group of students he teaches – Muslims and non-Muslims – are good friends who regularly discuss matters pertaining to their classes. Upon discovering how the lecturer conducts both Islamic and Moral Studies, they were frustrated.

"He is such a fake!"

"A man with forked tongue!"

"The real Two-Face!"

I can truly understand the frustrations of the students. After all, students look up to their lecturers for guidance and inspiration. And finding out that the person you look up to is an untrustworthy individual who doesn’t practise what he or she preaches can be a great disappointment.

But then again, it is so easy to get frustrated and disappointed with people whom we trust these days.

A tremendous disappointment

Like the students, I, too, recently felt a tremendous disappointment towards the people I looked up to. These are leaders who promised me and my fellow Malaysians that they would improve the state of the nation by championing the rights and fighting the wrongs. They vowed to bring down religious fanaticism and bigotry.

They gave us their word that Malaysians would be seen as Malaysians: as equals, nothing more, nothing less.

But just in 60 days, these leaders, like the lecturer who wore different hats in different classes, started twisting and flipping their words like snakes with forked tongues.

At first, everything going down the drain in our country was blamed on Umno. And then, a party resembling Umno was created to fight for a better Malaysia.

The past government was accused of breeding corruption top to bottom. And then, doors were widely opened to accept the same corrupt members.

Malays, Chinese, Indians and the "Lain-lain" were told to forget about race and take pride in calling themselves Malaysians. And then, the Malays were assured that their interests and special privileges would continue to be championed.

Initially, we were told to practice peace and tolerance. And then, we saw a foreigner, a bigot, a hate-speech preacher, an extremist and a man who breeds disunity among the people, being given protection instead of an extradition.

First, the cabinet members took a 10 percent salary cut in an attempt to reduce the government spending. And then, the bloated RM810 million budget for a religious police agency was justified.

Adoi. Clearly, talk is cheap.

But I get it. Being honest and trustworthy is hard – especially for a leader who lives in an aquarium with many eyes peering in on every decision he or she makes. With different people wanting different things, it is easy to fall into the trap of wanting to please everyone.

But then again, when leaders begin to wear different hats to satisfy different groups, they come across as self-centred and manipulative. Clearly, it is better to have people respectfully disagreeing, rather than being labelled as dishonest, untrustworthy and unreliable, is it not?

Likewise, the lecturer may also fall into the same trap of wanting to fulfil his job obligations by adhering to the syllabus given, regardless of its moral aspects.

Like a good leader who should always be open and honest about his or her agenda without the need to manipulate anything, a good lecturer should also strive to be an educator, to inspire students instead of prioritising some stupid syllabus.

However, despite our frustrations, the students and I remain hopeful. Though it is difficult to trust someone who never says what he or she means and never means what he or she says, what other choice do we have, huh?

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FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a growing media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a regular director, a struggling producer, a self-acclaimed photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot. - Mkini