This past week, two heads of state died.
But that’s where the similarities end. Indeed, the contrasts between these two heads of state scream so loudly that the whole world must but hear. It is this constrast between them that we must pay serious heed to if we as nations in this world are to see through our remaining years with some practical semblance of freedom and justice.
One fought against and suffered under soviet communist rule (1945-1989) and became the first president of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the bloodless 1989 Velvet Revolution which saw the end of repressive rule; the other succeeded his father as president to perpetrate a hardline authoritarian rule.
One lived, worked and fought for himself and his people to be freed from iron rule; the other conspired to ensure that the people will still stay unfree, the better to scare, manipulate and domesticate.
One was a poet, playwright, and a writer of treatise with such titles as The Power of the Powerless (1985), Living in Truth (1986), Towards a Civil Society (1994). The other was written about by his state-controlled media in some such fashion: “ … a spring of prosperity under socialism will surely come to the country thanks to the patriotic devotion of Kim Jong-il who blocked the howling wind of history till the last moments of his life”, when in reality, the nation with the world’s fourth largest army with a reported annual budget of US$6 billion has been for these past many years seen the ravages of famine among so many of its people. (The same state press agency also reported that
“ … in 1994, the Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea picked up a golf club for the very first time, and – as witnessed by 17 security guards- shot a smooth 38-under-par round of 34, including 11 holes-in-one.”)
One would be farewelled by his family and his people and then buried; the other “will likely be embalmed and put on display as a lasting reminder of the bloodline of the family that founded one of the world’s most reclusive states.”
In a sense, this sharp contrast between these two departed heads of state presents a kind of microcosm of political leadership intentions and styles in the world of human beings. In recent history, both nations were in fact in much the same boat; both societies were suppressed and repressed with the power elites in complete command of the political, economic and military institutions and the people were mere tools of the state, to do as the power elites desire, plan and implement. Then in 1989, one of these two nations saw the people wresting back their freedom in a largely bloodless revolution. But up till this day, the other nation remains resolutely in the same situation since the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula after the Korean War of 1950–53.
The human struggle is between freedom and control, participation and monopolization, truth and dissimulation, integrity and dishonesty. In the political process, the purpose should not be the formation and consolidation of power elites or the monopoly of political and economic processes and resources. The governing authorities are not the masters but servants of the people of a given nation.
This past week, sadly, a third person in political office passed on. This is Malaysia’s own Edward Lee. He was not a head of state or government, just a humble state assemblyman for Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. He was neither an internationally-acclaimed writer nor a superlative golfer. He commanded no army nor is known outside his own state of Selangor. He will not be sent off through a state funeral. But he was known in civil society circles and the corridors of the various town councils and municipalities taking up the causes and seeing to the needs of the people. Before contesting and winning a state assembly seat four years ago, he was a leader in his residence association, and a campaigner to save his beloved Bukit Gasing (Gasing Hill), a cause he was still pursuing days before his passing- a grassroot, neighbourhood man. The country is blessed to have such a representative of the people. Go on your way, good brother, into the arms of your Creator and find your peace, joy and grace in His embrace. May God bless his loved ones bereaved of son, husband and father.
(Please read “The power of the powerless”, an extract from extract from, The Power of the Powerless, by Václav Havel written in 1985, four years before the Revolution which ended communist rule.)
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
