by Teo Kueh Liang
I read with interest the Straits Times editorial, “The growing importance of engagement“ (6 Nov).
Foremost, the prerequisite for any top-down engagement to be organised successfully and meaningfully, the person who calls the shot must equip with sincerity, modesty and integrity besides having his/her objectives and vision in mind.
Let me cite a historical Chinese story about Cao Cao to illustrate how the importance of the basic trust between the ruler and his people.
Cao Cao was a Chinese statesman and the penultimate grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the dynasty’s final years.
When he regularly suffered migraine and acute headaches, he sought medical treatment from a then-well-known surgeon – Hua Tuo.
Hua sincerely advised him and suggested performing an acupuncture surgery on Cao’s brain to cure his condition. Due to Cao Cao’s suspicious nature, he suspected Hua harboured evil intentions by plotting against him. As a result of this unfortunate incident, Cao decided to put him to death.
When Hua anticipated his demise in the prison, he intended to pass down his medical book to someone to inherit it.
However, no one dares to accept his medical book. The refusal of it was obvious, it was simply because no one dares to offend Cao Cao.
In short, the underlying meaning of this story is that it takes two hands to clap if everything is to be seamlessly succeeded. It depends very much upon the integrity of the steersman.
In reality, I notice most people like to hear or read words of praise and then feel pleasant about it, ignoring or forgetting the importance of assessing the praise or words of advice, whether are they genuine, meaningful and significant or not.
At the same time, I also observe most people would get angry, disappointed or upset if they hear some things which are brunt, unvarnished or unfavourable.
Undeniably, all these are truly human nature and it is no exception in politics.
Thus, there are common scenes in many political forums or social discourses, where the invitees are generally quite discreet and reserved in their speeches and comments. Most probably because they are the pro-establishment “voices”.
In reverse, I seldom see the critics in the opposition camp invited to any public discourse or social forum.
Why and what to be afraid of?
Anyway, it is very significant and meaningful for the ruling party to be equipped with sincerity, modesty and integrity to steadfastly engage its people from diverse backgrounds for the ultimate objective of looking after their future and well-being.
