Harmony brings prosperity!
A house divided against itself cannot stand..Abraham Lincoln
Many people often wonder why there is such a discrepancy in growth rates between ourselves and the little red dot (and for that matter, with those nations which were once called little dragons), since basically we started on the same footing, and Malaysia actually has more resources at its disposal for development and growth.
Basically, it all boils down to one reason. While others are busy expanding their cakes, we are still in the midst of deciding who gets what and how to divide our cake, which is actually not expanding much as a result of not letting the best people bake it, and at the same time, letting too many rats eat it.
The little red dot’s founding father, MM Lee, attributed the success of the little red dot as this: ” Singapore has been able to move forward ahead of its peers in the region despite being a tiny nation because it focused on building interracial and interreligious harmony early on, which is crucial to create internal stability to attract investors.”
Whether you are his friends, admirers or foes, no one can doubt about his vision and his contribution to nation building of his country. Like all human, he may have his mistakes, but no one can doubt his foresight and his analytical mind.
What he said above hits the nail right on its head. While all the little dragons can concentrate solely on building their own industries and human resource, we are fighting to see who came first and who was last to board our own ship.
It is like a family which has half a dozen children. These children do not unite to run the family business but rather try to sabotage each other. In the end, the family business, despite started by their parents on a sound footing, can no longer compete with some of the other companies concentrating on innovation and growth. With all the back stabbing and quarrelling, everyone from the eldest to the youngest suffer.
The simple truth is ” harmony does bring prosperity”, like what the Chinese wisdom teaches us.
According to Lee, the red dot’s success is because of its interethnic and interreligious harmony.
Ask ourselves, are we now better than 53 years ago, in term of racial harmony and religious tolerance? The answer is obvious, we are now even more divided. And the more divided we are, the slower we are going to grow.
DO we still want to continue on the same path which has not allowed us to achieve our true potential?
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