APRIL 27 — If we’ve been hiding our defects over time, we will break eventually. Someone who is more restrained with her qualities is better placed to avoid catastrophe.
Consider Malaysia and Singapore’s handling of Covid-19.
All the way until mid-April, Singapore was lauded as a global “model” of how to contain the virus; people were saying the island-state was amazing at contact-tracing, it somehow managed to keep infected numbers low despite opening their schools, etc.
Then BOOM. The numbers exploded and now Singapore is among the countries in Asean with some of the highest infections.
Basically, up till mid-April Singapore’s test results were hiding her defects.
For the whole of March, the island-state mirrored Malaysia’s mentality up to mid-March. Recall again how “unimaginable” a lockdown (or movement control order aka MCO) seemed to so many of us even at the start of March?
That’s because, like Singapore, Malaysia’s February and early March numbers also hid our weaknesses.
But after MCO Phase 1, we woke up. We took measures and social distancing and abiding by the MCO became virtues.
Thus by late April, Malaysia’s numbers have dropped (yet, alas, we need to be careful – more below).
Fault-hiding is universal
There are essentially two kinds of people: Those who hide their flaws and those who hide their qualities.
If problems are hidden, then although there may be some advantage in the short-term, eventually the person (or system) will crack.
We are already seeing this with the education sector. Thanks to the MCO, many schools are discovering how unprepared they are when students are no longer required to be physically present in a classroom.
It gets worse. If it is “obvious” (duh) that learning can happen without the classroom and if it is obvious that many websites offer BETTER e-learning tools and experiences than what traditional schools and universities can offer, the question looms large: Are educational institutions still necessary?
Moving away from Covid-19 examples, there are also many instances throughout history in which a seemingly “indestructible” entity collapsed almost overnight:
- Alexander the Great’s empire after his death
- Communism in Russia
- The average Middle-Eastern nation ruled by despotic tyrants
- The dotcom bubble in the 90s
- Barisan beginning in the 21st century (and Pakatan Harapan since GE14)
- The average high-achiever in school who feels lost once he’s cast out into the corporate world.
The above all appeared astounding (even “immortal”) in one sense, yet all of them contained internal faults masked by their successes.
The hopeful/humble opposite
The alternative is apparent yet counter-intuitive: We need to stop concealing our weaknesses and, instead, begin to “show them off” while veiling or remaining quiet about our strengths.
Think about the low-profile janitor who, despite not having an MBA or a 5-figure salary, somehow manages to fulfil her duties with joy and minimum stress while raising three kids who get to see her for dinner every evening.
Compare this to the average corporate executive who fights fires every day and goes home late only to continue working while clicking on articles on “how to be a good parent.”
Think about quietest manager in the meeting who avoids attention-grabbing, listens while others keep on show-boating, only talks when absolutely required to, yet somehow comes across as wiser than most in the room.
Think about world-class restaurants (or the best cendol stalls in your neighbourhood) that rely entirely on word-of-mouth with no loud fanfare.
Think about countries like Kuwait or Vietnam that initiated Covid-19 lockdowns and school closures so early they were considered “paranoid”, yet both of whom today have fewer than 20 deaths combined.
Think about the caring unpretentious mum who knows way less than her son about bicycles, yet who has 10 times more wisdom than him because she “knows” somehow that speeding down a hill at 80km/h is a bad idea (and tries to warn him with, as usual little success).
What the above shows is that reality is complicated, power can reside in the least expected places and, conversely, disaster may veil itself in its opposite-looking façade.
This is why, despite how “good” it sounds, we must never get our hopes up over Malaysia’s low infection rate.
While we certainly pray and hope that more people recover, making a decision on the MCO (or deciding that, oh, the situation is “safer”) based on this would be a huge mistake.
Such an action would bring us right back to the pre-March Malaysia and pre-April Singapore kind of thinking.
Finally, think about the Covid-19 virus: A quasi-creature which is practically invisible, infinitely patient, doesn’t fight, doesn’t brag, doesn’t panic, started very small in China then (with zero urgency whatsoever) slowly got the attention of the world’s leaders and its people.
Everyone didn’t think much of it for many months, yet it has conquered the world, one region at a time.
What do you think was hidden by the very nature of Covid-19 — its defects or its strengths?
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
