OUR YOUTH, OUR PROSPECT, OUR FUTURE

LECTURE BY Y BHG TAN SRI MOHD SIDEK HASSAN
CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT

UiTM’s KSN ANNUAL LECTURE 2010

OUR YOUTH, OUR PROSPECT, OUR FUTURE

13TH OCTOBER 2010 (WEDNESDAY), 9.00-11.00 AM
INTAN AUDITORIUM, BUKIT KIARA

Bismillahir rahmanir rahim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh, Salam Sejahtera dan Salam 1Malaysia

Y Bhg. Dato’ Prof. Ir. Dr. Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar
Naib Canselor, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

YBhg. Datuk Prof. Dr. Hjh. Ramlah Adam
Dekan, Fakulti Sains Pengurusan dan Pengajian Dasar

Y. Bhg. Ketua-Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian dan Pegawai-Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan

Dekan-Dekan, Pensyarah-Pensyarah dan Para Pelajar

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan serta para hadirin yang dihormati sekalian,

Marilah kita memanjatkan kesyukuran ke hadrat Allah SWT, atas limpah kurnia dan izin-Nya jua, dapat kita berkesempatan untuk bersama-sama hadir dalam majlis pada pagi ini.

2. This is my third year participating in the UiTM Lecture Series and it is indeed an honour to be with you again. With the passing years we grow older, and I am often reminded by my colleagues, and my children I might add, that the view of the world is somewhat different with age, or is it with wisdom, I dare say.

HARRY POTTER FOR ALL GENRES

3. This said, if I were to mention that I have just watched the latest Harry Potter movie to either genres, young… and the not so young, I would probably get such reactions like “Gee that’s cool!” from the young, and “Really? How cultured!” from the not so young. I am guessing that it’s altogether swell to be in the Harry Potter “in the know” league club judging by these reactions. But I have often wondered why that is so?

4. The eye rolls and sarcasms aside these (5) movie sequels or the seven-series books for those who read them religiously have spanned generations and age bands. A child, like my cucu Mika, and a grand dad can laugh at the same cracks and be moved by the same sentiments. The Harry Potter mania goes beyond the magic, mystics and the dazzles. It carries life’s lessons made simple through a magical fiction that hits at our heart strings because they touch values that matter to us – – young and old all the same.

5. Harry Potter, a young orphan who works as a servant for his uncle and aunt would mature to become this great wizard of all times. It is in that process of becoming a wizard we see the essence, if you like, of character building. For instance when Albus Dumbledore the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry which Harry attends would say to Harry in one of the Series, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

RULE-BASED SOCIETY

6. In our youth we often relent to such emotions as, “I don’t understand this world”, “I don’t need to know this world yet” or “I have no power of changing it from where I am today”. These cries can often be our excuse to behaving badly and not taking responsibility for our lives, not least our own actions. Our choices today even as young as when we are in Standard One, or still in College, or about to retire, matter and they matter greatly. From the seemingly simple things like throwing your drink cans on the streets and not in a dustbin, to beating the traffic lights, to parking illegally, to not being truthful about your homework to your teachers or your exam marks to your parents, if not checked and corrected, can lead to the larger indiscretions in adult life.

7. Equally, even small acts of courage can manifest to great significance of bravery in later part of our lives. Actions such as say paying your illegal parking fines on times, to addressing elders gently; cleaning after yourself wherever you maybe, to never tolerating bullies in our classrooms or on the streets will greatly reflect our adult years.

WHAT’S RIGHT OR WHAT’S EASY

8. In our journeys, as a child, as a teenager, in our youth and then our adulthood, we will always and sadly face those who will make light of rules or laugh off discipline and laws. Our own reaction and responses to these situations will define the environment we ultimately approve as a society. There will always come a time in our lives, and many times in our lives I might add, when we have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy.

9. The moments when we have to choose the right over the easy are THE MOMENTS that will test our own belief system and the environment within which we function. It is easy to live our lives as if all is well in the world. Easy to drown ourselves in Akademi Fantasia, Greys Anatomy or Biggest Loser Asia or even Harry Potter, and let those in charge, others, just do their work. Easy to jump the queue and shout at the old woman ahead. Always easier to park and double park wherever we like, or not have a road tax on our vehicle.

10. It is harder to stand up, be counted, do the right thing and make a difference wherever we maybe one day. Always more difficult to wait for our turn at a bank, at a grocery checkout or in a crowded hospital. Traffic jams, crowded aisles, busy grocers, long waits, slow queues – these cannot, and simply must not be a license to breaking rules and behaving badly. How great it is if we are always, all of us are always inclined to say that it is forever easier on the conscience to do the right thing! It is eternally easier for the next generation when we each choose to do the right thing now!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

BLACK OR WHITE, OR GREY

11. You will already know by now at University, or for those working, that not everything is what it seems at face value. Not everything is black or white. If you would have watched Harry Potter you will know characters in the movie that seem purely evil or purely good at the start of the movie are not what seem. We live in such richness and diversity today. Within it too are differences and variances. We may not always comprehend the difference or be accustomed to the variance. But our lack of understanding cannot be an excuse for quick judgements and conclusions. We need to open our minds to people and environment that are different to us and our comfort zones. We must park our prejudices and preconceptions aside, if we do carry any, and give everyone a chance, every moment an opportunity and every proposal its fair go to proving its worth!

12. But built in these complexities is also simplicity. Sometimes a dragon is just a dragon as in Harry Potter. Or as Sigmund Freud, the neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry once said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!” Don’t waste your resources in reading too much into situations that do not bring value. You could well spend that energy on better things. Not everything needs to have a profound meaning. I very much like the K.I.S.S principle – – Keep It Simple, Stupid which is popularly used in the US Military. You may ask how would I know when to do which? Only our exposure can equip us with the wisdom to decipher when to call a dragon a dragon and when to say it is not black or white but grey now.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE, KNOWING CHOICES

13. When we look back at our own lives we will know that it matters NOT what and where someone is born into, but rather what they grow to become. The exposures we allow for ourselves and experiences we open ourselves to – – define us. We must have the humility to always accept that no one, us included, can be right all the time. We must always allow ourselves to reflect and research why people behave the way they do and not be quick to jump on questions like, “How can someone do that?” or “These people are just so ignorant and oblivious!”. The bigger thing to do is to understand and accept other peoples’ lives and way of thinking, even if you may not agree with it.

14. In our zest of college life and then adult grinds, we can sometimes lose the way and miss the purpose of our own existence. The choices we make along the way comes knocking on our doors of conscience asking such questions as, “Could you have done more with your opportunities?”, “Did you try hard enough given your abilities?” or even, “Is that as far as you would go for your dreams?”, and “Maybe the road less travelled was the better option”. In time, if not already, you will find these are the questions that will catapult you to your next growth marks.

15. As we become more and more subservient to our mobile phones and our blackberries we may find that the value-centric essence to sustainable life is missed from our life’s agenda. As students you will prepare your skills towards the best paying jobs and careers. The businesses you will work in will focus on optimal profit, through production efficiency. Prices will be cut to beat competition. These are natural market forces otherwise known as the invisible hands. The invisible hands of globalisation and free market sometimes leave no room for commercial rights and wrongs on the Agenda.

16. Decisions are moved from a business standpoint, not necessarily from ethical and moral standpoints. It is in this pace that we – businesses, public sector, and public including students like yourself need to find reason to the seeming madness. In this space too there will be those who will be knocked over by pace. But when all is said and done you will know that your achievements usually speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, defeats and disappointments. Failures are THE moments that will catapult us to greater success. They are where the real learning and teaching moments lie. Our greatest success lies not in never failing but rather in getting up each time we do fail.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

OUR YOUTH, OUR PROSPECTS, OUR FUTURE

17. Regardless of the cultures we come from, the traditions we follow or the backgrounds of our families the one common thread that binds us all is our YOUNG. They are our next generation. The common purpose we share as a civilisation thus is in building a better FUTURE for them. From the moral values we exude as individuals, to the values with which we run our businesses, and the principles with which we govern and administer our own lives and that of our families when we have one, to how we respond to our failures and successes, will tell the story of Malaysia and Malaysians in years to come.

18. We do not grow old by just living the years. We grow old when we stop thinking, when we stop learning and when we abandon our ideals. We grow old when we become too insular and start believing that ours and only ours is the right way! Age may wrinkle the body, but devoid of knowledge can wrinkle the soul altogether. So do not underestimate the power of your youth, the strength of a youthful mind and the significance it has on our collective future.

LIVING BEYOND AN AUDIENCE

19. I am persuaded that real growth and liberty in any society emanates when we can focus on something beyond the SELF. It emerges when we are able to focus our attention to truly caring for another as if caring for our own. From opening the doors, to waiting for everyone to leave an elevator before coming in rather than stomping in, to stopping at red lights and pedestrian crossings, and letting others have their right of way first, then waving as acknowledgement and to simply smiling and saying good morning to a fellow citizen, speaks volumes of a society.

20. These gestures, albeit trivial and often seen inconsequential, builds a society that respects, that cares, that is thoughtful. It advances and matures us as a country. We must become a society that does not tolerate the unruly. This must become a peer culture in our society. When we have to double park for instance, we needn’t wait for a ticket or the other driver to raise his voice before moving our car. Just the look and pressure from our fellow citizens should embarrass us from double parking because it is just not the societal norm. The same can apply to beating a queue, running the traffic lights, throwing litter indiscriminately, so on and so forth.

21. Decisions, actions and choices taken in our YOUTH will paint the picture of our own PROSPECTS and tell the story of the FUTURE we leave behind for our next generation. A cold generation today will be inherited by an uncaring one, a loving by an empathic. We do not need an audience to tell us right from wrong – our environment would have conditioned us, our conscience would simply then enable us to tell right from wrong.

22. But know that those who can work hard without an audience will receive applause from an audience in the end for their work. This we witness in the everyday examples around us. Our actions, whether good or bad, frequently becomes public. The person who runs on his treadmill in private looks good in public. The child who cheats on his/her homework will fail the finals and in public. The worker who prepares to only shine before an audience may lack substance when tested in private. The company that cares for its money and staff in private will shine in public for its achievements.

23. The single mother who lived on welfare, who sat in private for hours writing a book; sometimes wrote in local cafes with her baby in a carriage when her welfare money was running out was convinced that against all odds she too will have her moment and succeed one day. When she finished her first manuscript the first three publishers she approached wouldn’t talk to her. Dejected but holding on to hope, the book was then published in America and a movie deal was made. Seven books were to follow and the rest is history. JK Rowling the writer and creator of the Harry Potter series who became a multi millionaire in less than five years of living in poverty would say in her own words – – Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

24. Harry Potter aside, I would like to leave you with these thoughts. Life can be hard, in fact it is hard. But there is hope and opportunity for those who work hard. In the final analysis, this world rewards us for hard work, integrity and honesty. The determinants for reward, real reward does not change with time. Above all we must do right by ourselves first and foremost. Always, keep searching for the right thing. This may not always be apparent, but it is the search for truth and ingenuity that counts. That search ultimately is the magic wand in all our lives.

I thank you for your time and patience.

Sekian,
Wabillahi taufiq wal hidayah, Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabaratuh.