GET OUT if YOU Can't Stand the Heat in the kitchen!
"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". This gut-wrenching statement of U.S. President Harry Truman has resonated zillion times across us and as we speak now, it has been as relevant as ever.
The world has witnessed many OUTSTANDING LEADERS. In fact, many of them have proven to be outstanding LESS with words but MORE with their ACTION. To single out one from history and two Asian leaders as of today: U.S. President Harry Truman was elected as Vice President for 82 days only before he had to take over the presidency when President Franklin Roosevelt died. And on his 33rd day in office, he ordered dropping the ATOMIC BOMB which eventually ended World War II. Call it any other way, that kind of leadership and executive decision cannot be debated.
Fast forward today during this global pandemic. While other countries kept extending [over and over again the covid pandemic lockdown versions every two weeks then renewing it to another two weeks then extending it again to another two weeks [over and over again], Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin extended the national lockdown till December 31, 2020. You can be part of the Malaysia opposition parties but you cannot shoot down that well-thought decision taken by the PM Yassin for Malaysia. Let's play devil's advocate if you can. Why till December 31, 2020? It's a no-brainer. This pandemic won't be over after another several months. God knows when. [p.s. as per a guarded WHO forecast, this pandemic will be over in roughly two [2] years]. And this brings us full-circle back. Why the hell in some countries [oooops my lips are sealed], lockdown extensions are being announced every two weeks? Because of flattening? Because of bending? Sorry folks, i'd rather concoct a more apt adjective. I guess it's because the 'curve is stooping [and neither flattening nor bending [to borrow the adjective spewed by a severely discredited and tattered sycophant of an Asian national leader].
There’s just no comparison with other national leadership decisions extending lockdowns two weeks after two weeks after two weeks. If that is not short-sightedness, I don’t know how to call it.
To add insult to injury, those VERY pathetic government announcements are made in the dead of the night or at the wee hours of the morning. Whewwwww!
Shifting to a most recent display of sterling leadership, Japan’s incorruptibly clean Prime Minister Shinzo Abe submitted his resignation for ‘health reasons’. And with full transparency, his office announced that it was due to a digestive ailment [and this has been ailing him since his teens!]. With full transparency [AGAIN], his exact illness is Ulcerative Colitis. It is serious enough but NOT life threatening, NOT fatal. Yet Prime Minister Abe resigned even if his illness is/was NOT life threatening! Me and my loud mouth is itching to scream why other national leaders are not as transparent in coming out ‘clean’ to his national constituency? But honestly, FEAR PREVAILS upon us. We FEAR ending up behind bars, right?
As recent as yesterday, Conchita Carpio-Morales, a VERY VERY VERY highly credible national personality who feared NO ONE stated in her speech to the graduates of the U.P. College of Law: ‘This pandemic is NOT an excuse for incompetence, NOT an excuse to run roughshod of the fundamental laws. In fact, it is in the darkest hours that competent leaders are tested under extreme circumstances’.
Do we deserve a decaying democracy peppered with a well-funded disinformation infrastructure of trolls, lies, half-truths, innuendos and fake news? Probably YES and NO. YES if you hardly lift your finger. NO if you stand up now and let your voice be heard, even if it may be a solitary voice coming out from the wilderness.
Further I sayeth not.
