WAITING FOR GODOT? – LEADING ON VALUES, NOT TRADITION

SPEECH BY TAN SRI MOHD SIDEK HASSAN
CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA

FEATURED SPEAKER AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE CAPAM BIENNIAL CONFERENCE 2010

WAITING FOR GODOT? – LEADING ON VALUES, NOT TRADITION

MONDAY, 18TH OCTOBER 2010, 8.30AM, MALTA

Mr. Paul Zahra
Permanent Secretary
Office of the Prime Minister, Malta

Ms. Lynelle Briggs
President of CAPAM, and
Chief Executive Officer, Medicare, Australia

Ministers and Heads of Civil Service

Distinguished Speakers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good morning.

MALTA

It is such a great pleasure to be in Malta. There cannot be a better place to illustrate the tapestry of the world today, as Malta does in its own history. It has seen times of Phoenix and the Greeks, of the Carthage and Romans, and, the Arabs. Then followed Napoleon’s arrival in Malta on his way to Egypt during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1798. In 1800 the French surrendered Malta to Britain and as part of Treaty of Paris, Malta officially became a part of the British Empire in 1814.

2. Some scholars believe that the Maltese language is of Punic, or rather, Phoenician origin. Many however say much of the language is a derivative of Tunisian Arabic, an influence from the Ottoman Empire. The Maltese language, not least the history of Malta itself offers many global lessons on richness derived from diversity. Libertarians say that the Maltese language is the only Semitic language which uses the Latin alphabet in its standard form. When Malta became a member state of the European Union on the 1st of May 2004, its national language also became one the official languages of the European Union. It is an extraordinary history of a language so rich in its cultural and linguistic diversities. What ultimately comes to the fore in the evolution of Malta’s history and language is that it is values that nullifies differences. It is values, not traditions that bind divergence and differences.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

NOT SO FLAT AFTER ALL

3. Each day, we witness our walls of citadel challenged by confounding environmental changes, bearing growing complexity in world communities. We see seismic challenge on many fronts, such as what defines global economy? What makes global powers? Is security a local issue? What is the relevant technology and innovation wave? Do we respond to a flat or curved world theory?

4. There was a time when businesses and governments had simple certainties and loyalties. For businesses its social responsibility was to maximise profit; and for governments it was to govern as they saw best! Globalisation has since revolutionised this unpretentious certainties to profound complexities. It has transformed how governments and businesses are run today. From the day to day vagaries that affect you and me to the larger global policies, we are bewildered by the relevance of “RELEVANCE” itself.

5. The question of RELEVANCE today range from stuff like — could the grocery store by our house be replaced by e-SOMETHING? Schools and universities run from the comfort of our homes? Can reading and writing be made prehistoric, to simply recognising characters like Braille? Would the spread of technology redefine our view of human dimension? Would emotions, character, and senses be relevant parameters in our judgement? Or, could the new world be freed of internet, emails and cell? Has human progress reached its Omega Point of certainty and perfection?

RETURNING TO THE BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND THE END

6. As we deliberate the nature of our current existence, we cannot but do so in the context of global communities, and its complexities. We cannot but do so in the context of our own existence and our purpose here and now. Simply put, we cannot develop a stable domestic economy today, if we have no perspective of the global economy. As Stephen Green, former Chairman of HSBC and now the Trade and Investment Minister of the United Kingdom wrote in his book titled “Good Value”, “Each person’s journey is incomplete, and it is his or her own, of course – and yet we have so much in common too. The questions resonate widely: What is happening to our world? What’s the point of the work I spend so much of my creative energy on? What do I want to leave behind? Is there anything more to it all than ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”

7. Isolationism and dissension can no longer hold a forum globally. They no longer allow for progress, nor can they support prosperity. Many of our local issues are ripples of global occurrences. Many of our national policies are in response to international realities. Many of our corrective actions and measures are a symptom of macro and micro imbalances in societies. By default, if not by requisite, markets and nations need to cooperate if only to ensure relevance of their own autonomy.

OFFA GOLD COIN

8. Taking a step back into the 7th Century, one of the most mysterious discoveries of Anglo-Saxon archaeology is the golden coin of King Offa of Mercia (757-796 AD). The coin was stamped in perfect Arabic characters bearing Quranic verses. The verses inscribed had the Muslim declaration of faith – “There is no God but Allah, The One, Without Equal, and Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah”.

9. Many have speculated why this was to be; and many a hypotheses of why a coin was made with the image of one of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon Kings before Alfred the Great on one face of the coin, and a declaration of a faith not shared by him on the other. Research would show that the time of issuance of this coin would coincide with the growing significance of Arab trade, the rise of the Silk Road and growth of Muslim strength in Spain. The coin was said to have been cast for use by pilgrims who trekked through Arab areas then. Other evidence would show that Offa’s original silver penny was the same weight and metal content of Abbasid dirham then. To distinguish his country’s coin from that of the Abbasid Caliph, King Offa had the “OFFA REX” branded on his coin in later years.

10. King Offa was said to have ordered this coin, to facilitate doing business with the Muslim world as the original coin bore a cross. He wanted to make it easy for the people, easy for his own traders to do business in new lands and cultures. The OFFA REX brand was done to guard integrity of the coin and his constituent. Whether for trade, or for a gift, the Offa’s Gold Coin, which is displayed in the British Museum today, illustrates that even as far back as more than 1000 years ago, leaders were cognisant of the tributes of internationalisation. They adapted to environment without losing their own value system.

THE THING ABOUT GLOBALISATION

11. The thing about globalisation is that it does not confine itself to trade and human capital only. Its focus today relies more and more on internationalisation of ideas. Whereas once we saw internationalising of human capital and assets, today we see movement of ideas. Hence the rise in patents and the vigilance on piracy.

12. The severe reality is, we can no longer operate on the premise of a Malaysian way of doing business, or the Singapore way, no longer the Indian trade secret or the Chinese nor the Japanese or European norms. Today’s dynamism demands a global value system, beyond the myopias of our own cultures and traditions. Cultures do not travel into other cultural premises. Traditions simply cannot be adapted into a foreign community without losing its own essence. That which travels are values. Values that can build sound societies, robust businesses, sustainable markets and competitive nations.

13. There is explicit recognition by global communities that our national interests lie in international cooperation and collaboration. From the ethics of trade to issues of climate change, from the contributing factors to poverty and security threats to fighting extremism and terrorism, from the quality of education to its reach, requisites a confluence in purpose. Even as there may be differences in opinions and views, the need for partnership and consensus on common purpose needs to be the compass that guides us.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

GLOCAL REALITY

14. As we seek to prosper our own markets and nations, we need to be acutely aware of those people who are on the other side of globalisation – – wading off poverty, stuck in the abyss of deprivation and despair. We cannot as global communities inherit sustainable prosperity if parts of the world are still cut off from modernisation and globalisation. We cannot move to greater modernisation if hunger and poverty prevails in parts of our own society, or in others. Equally, we cannot have a healthy society, if in parts of the world incurable pandemics and illness continues to prevail. Admittedly too, developed countries cannot continue to demand adherence of carbon emission standards by developing countries, without taking cognisance of growth and prosperity balance for all.

15. A poignant outcome of the recent financial crises is the importance of such groupings like the G20, G8, BRIC, ASEAN+3 to name a few. These groupings tell us that issues are global, and governments and businesses must comprehend macro issues in resolving their local responses. Bearing on this, the public sector of our countries must be founded on a leadership that thinks and acts globally. The private sector must see loyalties that extend beyond profit making, to its commitment to its employees, customers, stakeholders, the environment within which it operates, not least to the society it serves.

16. Innovation breeds and grows on our understanding of how other markets and politics work. We can no longer hold the view that the cabal of rich nations will operate on one rule, while the rest on another. Even with varying GDP per capita income, countries like China affect the US economy, and progress in Brazil with substantial poverty affects growth in Europe.

17. Moving this one step further, the congregational outcome of globalisation is that, as we draw our own national trade policies for instance, we need to be mindful of such outcomes like illegal immigrants, and immigration issues. The correlation between trade, tourism, security and competitiveness is now said in the same breath when in the past these would have been compartmentalised quite differently.

WHAT IS MISSING IN OUR PROGRESS?
18. In times when technology and innovation has moved to unimaginable stratospheres, we are still grappling with disasters and failures of the kind we have never seen before. How can we achieve such leaps of progress, yet move to such devastation in our tragedies? Shouldn’t progress bring greater prosperity and minimal calamities? Shouldn’t the world be more certain with such great discoveries and tools at our disposal, or has it become more imperfect as we strive to greater perfection?

19. Stephen Green highlights in his book, which incidentally was launched in Malta: “globalisation is about something far deeper than economics, commerce and politics. It is an evolution of the human spirit.” He says we need to connect our metaphysical and moral framework – what we worship, what we admire, what we hold dear, what we hold to be right – what we think about the world and what we do and should do. None of the realms we move in – our family life, our social life, and our work life – is neutral ground.

LETTING GO OF TRADITIONS, HOLDING ON TO VALUES

20. Today’s realism tells us that we require an endurance greater than physical means to eradicate poverty, pandemics, imbalances and social disorders. Endurance built on value system. A value system that is commonly and communally shared across beliefs, creed and political ideologies. In our own sectors and markets, we need to reflect and challenge the traditions of how things were done. Can we transport those traditions to these times, or do we instead export the values upon which those traditions were founded on?

21. Progress does not guarantee better communities. It does better standards of living. Progress does not certify integrity and honour. No amount of rules and oversight can guarantee good behaviour. The very elements of progress can also be its antithesis. Rise in use of technology and creative innovation in economies brings great competitiveness to our markets, and countries. But with such progress we are also witnessing more complex crime and terrorism threats.

22. Good behaviour is instituted and nurtured. The leadership cultures we build in our public sectors and the corporate values of the private sector will outweigh the severity of any legislation, rules and oversight we may continue to institute to eliminate fraud and breach. Fundamental for these times, I am persuaded, is building strong characters. The character and value system we approve in our societies will resonate in the strength of our institutions. Fundamental to building good character is in our own abilities to challenge the “traditions of the way we were”.

23. “Fiddler on the Roof” is a critically acclaimed musical, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. The story centres on Tevye the milkman, and his struggles to maintaining his family traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. It is a story of hope, love and compromises. It is a story of holding on to values and letting go of traditions. As tight as Tevye held on to traditions he found that his ways were forcefully displaced by the changing times.

VALUES BASED LEADERSHIP –WAITING FOR GODOT?

24. We are entering a new era where problems, solutions and responses are personalised. The forthcoming generations, if not properly equipped may risk redefining humanity to commodities. Our every interaction could be turned into transactional value with no cognitive instincts. The loss of character to me could change everything in the years and centuries to come. It could change the very equilibrium of world progress and sustainability. As parents, siblings, leaders, mentors, teachers, spouses, friends and fellow human being, we risk a world that could lose this, but have the leverage still to reverse it. Our senses and empathy should never be recalibrated to apathy. Building of a value system based on sound character in itself is not elusive. Some argue that it is. The counter argument collapses the utopian view that even in a family you have varying views and opinions, how can you then build homogeneity in an organisation and/or a country?

25. “Waiting for Godot” is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for someone named Godot. Voted “the most significant English language play of the 20th century”, the play deals with a hope for a change and a chance to be saved. One of the characters is Godot, someone who never shows up. So could we all be “Waiting for some form of Godot?”

26. No amount of legislations can legislate character. This can only be achieved from the ecosystem we provide. The ecosystem we approve as our culture. If we, as a society, tolerate breaking of laws, then the characters that evolve within that would have different yardstick to right and wrongs from one who would not tolerate these behaviours. But if we are to learn anything from Malta that has seen many conquering powers, strength is built when we bridge the differing influence with common values. Values that enabled King Offa to cast a coin in adapting to the needs of a time without loss of integrity. Values which when all is said and done, allows us to look back and say I truly did my best in doing the world right.

Fundamentally, that is the Godot we must all create, and not wait for.

I thank you for your patience and your time.