Religious cults are enemies of nation building and economic progress

The rise of cults like GISB or Global Ikhwan Sendirian Berhad and Holdings threatens planning for a prosperous and dignified Malaysia. — Bernama

The Madani budget has been tabled and it aims for development and progress hopefully will turn our lives around for the better.

The rise of cults like GISB or Global Ikhwan Sendirian Berhad and Holdings, which is believed to be a splinter of the Al-Arqam cult that was declared a deviant group, threatens our planning for a prosperous and dignified Malaysia.

Knowledge progress

One key aspect of human and nation development is the progress in knowledge. In order for knowledge to grow, thrive and be of use, it must developed in a critical and rigorously academic and practiced manner.

Information, experience and perceptions of societies must be framed within a critical discourse and questions formulated to break down the issues and rigorously examined to develop newer and better ways of doing things or thinking about things. With the presence of cult teachings, knowledge is inward and imprisoned and all interpretations will depend entirely on a group of self appointed people that would imprison the human minds to stagnate and eventually die. Billions of ringgit allocated for education and research would be wasted and the nation will never change and progress positively.

Prof Mohd Tajuddin opines that religious cults will undermine progress of the nation — dividing the community and stagnating progress with the rejection of discourse and critical thinking.

Secular education

An important part of education is profession-based knowledge and philosophical or social based knowledge. Both must come from a secular perspective with critical discourse and empirical findings being the basic tools for humanity to teach itself differently from the past.

Cults like GISB would stagnate and kill secular education as it is deemed unrelated to the world view of God and other religious teachings.

The budget had allocated almost RM90bil for schools and universities to make sure that the country has the work skills and the professional knowledge that would attract investors as well as provide a multi-national collaboration on many business and educational ventures.

Cult teachings abhor secular knowledge, which is deemed detrimental to the survival of the faith that deals with the idea of faith knowledge from the elders, with no chance for testing, examining and discourse.

Education religion

The budget also saw much money being allocated for religious teaching especially that of Islam. The Madani government seek a modern style education of the tahfizs, madrasah and Islamic education institutions in order to provide a perspective of both the worldly and spiritual development as one and growing at the same pace. Cults like the GISBH uses direct faith teaching that has gone far away from the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. They rely only on their cult leader’s Abuya or Ashhaari’s visons and statements to guide their spiritual paths.

The cult believes in the continuity of the dead leader’s teachings through human vessels and even vassals in order to grasp a strong hold on the minds and soul of the followers. They will not be able to appreciate the real teaching of Islam from a platform that is more moderate and critical in approach.

Global work culture

A global work culture is no longer an “if” but is now a “must”. Work appointments now cross cultural boundaries and a global education construct that looks at the world is encouraged, and peering inwards at one’s own micro society is no longer an option. Universities must see that their curriculum accreditation aligns with the broader requirements of a borderless world. The idea of an education for a career destined mainly in a small geographical location is no longer an attractive or the only option.

A narrow-minded educational construct is no different than a cult holding back its followers under a coconut shell that would have apparent short term safety at the cost of larger and more golden opportunities.

Freedom and entrepreneurship

Freedom of expression and questioning leads to entrepreneurship where the talents and ideas matter most. The days of a fixed and boxed in ideas of cults like GISBH or even of professions in any practice are challenged with the rise of AI doing jobs that earlier graduates can perform.

The new ways are the management and the ideas of new ventures and cross cultural competition at the global levels are now the new gaming fields. The old borders should be no more. And yet, Malaysia is still stifled with old outdated practices and evaluations of a fast disappearing and extinct work constructs and policies. To be successful, new ideas must challenge the old ideas and practices with the ocean that has no shorelines to be the new battlefields of economies.

Democracy and dignity

In human history, religion was supposed to define the dignity of a person.

But then, religion became a tool of conquest and subjugation and has made man less than what he was meant to be by creating a class of clergy and followers.

It was democracy, socialism and communism that began to redefine the dignity of the person through ideas of economy, whether of a shared state or a capitalistic one.

The worth of a person is related to the idea of property ownership and currency exchange in one sense and also the ideas of human rights and civil liberties on the other. In a cult where the leadership owns and profits everything while treating workers as slaves without personal wealth, the dignity of a person decreases significantly as well as the idea of expansion and innovation. Without personal wealth and capital, new ventures would fail to materailise.

Democracy as practiced now in many nations is an anchor of economic well being where justice for basic survivability and dignity of people are controlled by the masses rather than like a cult from the leadership alone. Political and religious cults destroys human dignity and thus the economies that go with them.

Conclusion

Religious cults will undermine our progress as a country and as a nation. They divide our community and stagnate our progress with the rejection of discourse and critical thinking. Without discourses and critical thoughts, entrepreneurship and progress die out along with whatever survivability or sustainability that we can ever hope for.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is a professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. He also sits on the Board of Governors of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

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What’s in the RM421bil 2025 budget

 What’s in the RM421bil 2025 budget

  Budget 2025: Singles, senior citizens to get RM600 Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tabled the 2025 budget, of which RM335 billion, or 79.6%, .

Have they, not just politicians, civil servants no shame?

 With billions being spent on Budget 2025, it is important that the money reaches the people, and is not siphoned off by the corrupt and kept in ‘safe houses’. Good must triumph.

Dorairaj Nadason

The meaning of longevity and purposeful living

 

Munger is just as highly regarded as Buffett because the values they espouse have become a long-standing guide to value investors, including myself. — Reuters

It's imperative to make a conscientious effort to do good

JUST last week, we witnessed the passing of two towering figures – investing legend Charlie Munger and iconic US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Both are centenarians, with Munger living to 99 years and Kissinger at 100 years.

Apart from their longevity, what’s remarkable about both the gentlemen was their sharp mental acumen during their ripe old age and continuous influence on society right up to their last days.

As obituaries poured in across the media, we could see their overwhelming contribution in charting the course of world history in their respective sphere of influence.

Not many people are blessed with good health that can last a century.

Incidentally, Munger and Kissinger were able to lead both long and meaningful lives.

Time is precious because life is fleeting, but from their lives, I learnt what’s most important is not solely about longevity but also a life of purpose.

Knowledge for the next generation

Most would know Warren Buffett instead of Munger. Some say their relationship is akin to Batman and Robin. However, it is important to know that Berkshire Hathaway would not be where it is today without Munger’s existence and the role he played. In the world of investment, Munger is just as highly regarded as Buffett because the values they espouse have become a long-standing guide to value investors, including myself.

Just as Benjamin Graham who came before Buffett, his book helped mould the idea of value investing for the subsequent generations. Of course, there is no example of a better student that lived out his entire lifetime based on the knowledge imparted by Graham.

The imprint left by Munger on the investing world is no less significant than Buffett. He had the hand in convincing Buffett in looking beyond the United States towards China and taking an early stake in BYD worth Us$230mil in 2008 which has since grown in value to Us$2.4bil as of October 2023.

This was among the most successful investments that Berkshire Hathaway made in recent decades delivering 10 times in returns over 15 years.

This investment is significant because BYD is not only the leading battery manufacturer in the world today, but also the largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in terms of volume sold in China, championing the EV supply chain and green agenda in the world’s most populous economy. Globally, BYD’S EV sales is just behind Tesla.

In Munger’s own words, “I have never helped do anything at Berkshire Hathaway that was as good as BYD and I only did it once.”

Furthermore, I respect Munger for often being willing to speak the truth even if it is contrarian to the sentiment of the day

Unlike most Americans, Munger often gave credit to China’s communist government in its effort of growing the economy, executing national policies and plans while lifting the people from hardcore poverty. Another classic example was Munger’s open criticism of cryptocurrency during its speculative rally to dizzying heights attracting much irk from the youths.

‘Tang Ping’ phenomenon

We are increasingly seeing the youth of today embark on a series of passive aggressive resistance movement which is unheard of prior to this decade.

“Tang Ping” is a Chinese slang that means lie down flat and get over the beatings, which is a direct rejection of societal pressure to achieve certain definition of success as per the norm.

Due to an entrenched culture of overworking yet not being able to achieve the desired level of achievements, youths in China opted for the “Tang Ping” way of life rather than to continue to strive.

It started getting popular during the pandemic years and was further exacerbated across social media as many struggled to achieve upward mobility in society for which they had long hoped.

In the United States, a similar counter-culture approach was observed, as those in workforce pivoted towards “quiet-quitting”.

In this case, employees of companies choose to do just enough to get by without getting fired and avoid working towards achieving their personal and companies’ goals.

While it is said this phenomenon is prevalent in developed economies and highly competitive society, in my observation, certain youth in Malaysia are welcoming such approach which can be seen in across social media feeds.

This is highly disconcerting. I do not deny the importance of enjoying life beyond pursuits of material possessions.

I also agree about valuing family time especially because life is short.

However, while time is precious, and tragedies of life are unfortunate, these premises cannot be used as the excuse to not work hard in life or to try to make living a lifetime a meaningful one.

This is especially when many good people with extraordinary talent are left undiscovered because they choose to lie low or refuse to make the effort to compete.

This will give room to foster a more elitist society, which comprises those who come from a powerful or privileged background.

Some of these people may lack virtues such as integrity or morality but they will end up ruling the world if those who come from the less fortunate background choose not to challenge the status quo and opt for “Tang Ping”. It ends up being a vicious cycle.

Finding purpose in life

The focus of today’s column is not to preach the right way of life but to offer a perspective on the ongoing phenomenon that is fast becoming popular among the youth. This affects the economic development of a nation and the progress of a dynamic society.

Everyone is entitled to live in the manner he or she chooses. It is hard to judge or pass a comment without knowing what others have been through.

Yet, finding meaning or purpose in life is more important than anything else because it will set the path of which one chooses to live for the rest of their life.

If one does not have any interest in the pursuit of monetary rewards, a career in giving back may be more fulfilling. That is why we see professions such as teachers, nurses and journalists exist.

Regardless of the path that one takes, it is imperative to make the conscientious effort to do good in whatever capacity we are.

Even as a businessman, entrepreneur or fund manager, corporate social responsibility or environmental, social and governance efforts should not be a branding initiative to win the public’s recognition.

Branding and showmanship should not be the factors that go into the thought process when choosing to do good. For an individual and a business alike, many hope to last beyond three generations.

However, it is important to remember that longevity should always come with a purpose.

Only then will it be meaningful.

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