AT this point in our nation’s development we should be proud and confident of the way we have organised our society.
Indeed, we are on the right path.
Our strength so far is due to authority, sincerity and seriousness about keeping our society on the path of continuous achievement.
Various actions have been taken, among others, to uphold the principles of justice and tolerance in organising our multi-religious society. This has contributed significantly to stability and harmony.
This should be maintained at all costs.
However, there is ample room for improvement. Our society can attain further success and sustain the momentum if we continue to refine our way of doing things. One of the important items on the agenda is strengthening ethical practices.
The recent decision to establish a National Institute of Ethical Practices is encouraging. The institute will play a prominent role in enhancing ethical practices among public servants and businessmen.
The idea of adhering to high spiritual and moral values is to ensure fairness in our way of doing things. The collapse of great civilisations was basically due to their loss of spiritual and moral values.
Similarly, the advanced societies of the present day are on the decline because of such neglect.
Spiritual and moral values are integral to the human condition. They provide dynamism and are always relevant.
They provide direction and a sense of purpose in our living.
A society without a clear mission can be very destructive.
In our case, the Rukun Negara spells out clearly that Malaysians should adhere to their religious beliefs. Vision 2020 continues to be supportive of the ideal that by the year 2020 we must be able to produce a balanced society whose citizens possess strong religious and spiritual values and are imbued with the highest ethical standards. Our present task is to translate these values into our social systems and practices.
Islam is of the view that moral acts are not distinguishable from religious acts. The more religious an individual is, the more morally upright he will be. To Al-Ghazali, a great Muslim scholar, ethics is a study of certain religious beliefs that guide the rightness and wrongness of action for the purpose of practice, and not for the sake of mere knowledge.
Al-Ghazali is emphatic that ethics is the paramount practical science, for he who cannot manage and direct his soul is ill-equipped to manage the affairs of others.
In our present society, a great concern emerging from our nation’s progress is a decline in ethical practices. It seems that there is an inverse relationship between prosperity and moral decline. This is attributed to our social culture influenced by a hedonistic worldview and lifestyle. This philosophy of life considers the maximisation of earnings and desire as the highest virtue.
This is taking place because we consider wealth, bodily satisfaction and sensuous pleasures as the fundamental goals of our lives.
Indeed, the adoption of this lifestyle is the major source of corrupt practices in all sphere of our activities, whether in politics, business or other areas of social interaction.
The future of a society imbued with this ideology can lead to disequilibrium and ultimately affect its prosperity in the long run.
Our model of development, which is in line with our national aspirations, insists on the importance of upholding moral ideals in our development process.
This can be achieved through translating the spirit of justice in the way we organise our society.
It also requires that a serious effort be made to develop moral fibre among our politicians, public servants and entrepreneurs. They are the formulators, executors of our public policies and parties to our commercial activities respectively.
The public sector has to lead the way. Good performance, as seen in the provision of quality services, is an imperative. No society can progress if the public sector is lacking in performance and does not command the respect of the public.
On the other hand, the strategy of earning profit through social responsibility is in line with business ethics. It should be the culture of our business community. To be socially responsible is not to reduce profits. Instead, profit is generated through the strategy of market optimisation, that is, through bigger sales. This requires our business sector to be efficient and competitive. Lacking these qualities can contribute to economic decline.
The present achievement and future progress of our society should be through our commitment that political, economical and societal progress have to be achieved through ethical means and approaches. There is no other formula that can produce success. Indeed, this is the religious mean which is forever relevant.