Raison d’etre

Thanks to Tunku Abdul Aziz who wrote “Consistency Of Purpose, Duty And Responsibility” in Sinchew that taught me this French phrase, “Raison d’etre”.

It basically means “the reason of being”. He said:

My loyalty, however, is to my own raja, the Sultan of Kedah, and that loyalty, however, is not unqualified. He has to earn it by acting in the best interests of his subjects. That to me is every ruler’s sole raison d’etre.

The French have another word, noblesse oblige, which is translated as those who enjoy the advantage of wealth and power have an obligation to protect those who do not have these advantages.

How do you earn respect from people? By forcing others to do so? By wanting someone who “disrespect” you to pay RM10K, which is about the person’s 6-month-salary? I like how someone out there said… “A Sultan’s “pride” worth only RM10K? Now who is disrespecting who?”

If people can kutuk (criticise) and thrash the way Queen Elizabeth II handled the Princess Diana’s death, I don’t see why people in Malaysia can’t do likewise.

To me a Head-of-state is just another political office-holder, like those Prime Minister and ministers… If my Prime Minister shows that he/she is incompetent, and unable to live up to the public trust, I will not respect him/her… The existence of a head-of-state is for the people to swear loyalty to, and as a result, this person must be able to live up to the people’s trust, by being impartial and above politics…

It is quite save to say the democracy in Malaysia is quickly degrading towards the direction of Singapore. In Singapore, the blogosphere people called their head-of-state “prataman”, and none of them seems to be fined yet…

 

The reason of me being a poor grad student with no publication? Stupid and lazy… and maybe spending too much time reading these political dramas out there… sigh~~