Poetic justice

Excellence is not a skill, it’s an attitude.

Pursuit of Excellence Travails Is Comforting (POETIC) justice is the ethos of finding, attaining, and living in contentment. This virtue is hardly inculcated and cultivated during formative years. A decomposing education system drills the unnecessary into our souls.

That which should be unlearned to enhance the ability to search and pursue excellence is cleverly and cavalierly ignored. It’s exasperatingly difficult to wonder why a faultless education system was hijacked, kidnapped and shoplifted in full view. There can be no greater cardinal sin.

G K Chesterton lamented: “Fires will be kindled to testify to the fact that two plus two makes four; swords will be drawn to prove that summer leaves are green.” Human rights translate to human fights when the obvious has to be force fed and legislated.

The purloined education system is wrong in law and irrelevant in fact. Archaic methods and content have sprouted strong shoots while the roots are rotting. The quality of education is unpleasantly rancid like putrefied yoghurt. Meanwhile, politicians get an education in staying power.

Competition and meritocracy are two sides of the same coin. The fact that the pursuit of excellence attracts and favours only the best and the brightest is a national anathema that requires suffocating legislation and impractical government policies. The best and brightest thus seek greener pastures across the oceans.

Everybody needs to be fired up to search for excellence in every sphere of life whether it is diet, health, education, skills-sets, wealth-creation, career choices, contributing to society’s well-being, etc. Ironically, the failure of the prevailing education structure has become a tireless persuader and a relentless motivator.

Aristotle explained: “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choices, not chance, determines your destiny.”

If Aristotle’s description means anything, it means most national education arrangements have miserably failed because none of his suggested prescriptions are encapsulated in any known educational syllabus. The conspiracy to churn out pre-programmed citizens is a global menace. Rationalising citizens are a hazard to the ruling class.

Vince Lombardi offered another nugget: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase after perfection, we can catch excellence.” That ought to jump start a million people to begin prioritising values not sullied by beliefs advanced by government deception.

Poorly Organised Education Tactfully Invites Criticism (POETIC) does justice as nothing gets the attention of policy-makers despite vocal and verbal outcries. The citizenry has to become self-starters to begin their individual journeys in search of excellence with any and all available resources.

Self-learning is not unlawful or illegal. Autodidacts (self-taught) like Rabindranath Tagore, G. V. Desani, Charles Dickens, Truman Capote, David Hume, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Ford, etc., must inspire students, parents and teachers to seek alternatives.

Public education is so untenable that capitalist-driven private educational institutions sprouted everywhere like mushrooms after a thunderstorm. The pursuit of excellence starts from within. No other stimuli can match what the fire in you can develop into as you reach for the stars. An old saying: “If you aim at the stars, you may hit a tree.” 

Government officials are not hardwired to search for excellence. There are honour-bound to contain and maintain multiple furtive compromises, half-baked promises, suspect premises, hidden motives, and subtle agreements. And the unavoidable pathos is that we have voted them to govern our lives.

Recently, a few podcasts showcased some highly-placed individuals who shrugged off prosecution with the DNAA exit strategy. Even the Chief Justice chimed in to deflect blame heaped on the judiciary. Many ‘senior’ lawyers offered their views as if in search of excellence in explanation and interpretation.

It’s alarming that none mentioned the import and impact of Article 162(6) Federal Constitution that grants and guarantees sitting judges the power and authority to amend, adapt and repeal any Act of Parliament if it offends the Federal Constitution. Article 162(7) unequivocally hammers home this point. They completely missed it. Law schools, too, engage in education bias.

For 22 years we suffered a racist megalomaniac whose twisted sense of excellence was a Machiavellian tactic to curb and control royalty and the judiciary. His ‘learned’ advisors surprisingly ignored Article 162(6) and Article 162(7) Federal Constitution that kept intact judicial powers despite the amended Article 121.

Ideally, tax-paying and voting citizens can learn absolutely nothing from government institutions and its policies. If freedom and liberty mean anything, it means we the people have the responsibility to excel without handouts from our patently incompetent leaders.

The recently convened Global Intellectual Discourse witnessed PMX accepting the failure of our education system. More rhetorical talk, discussions, plans, and promises will not cut it. We need to compete with global advances and innovations. We must get serious in introducing sea changes to the quality of our education structure and organisation.

We have twenty-four hours a day. Eight at work, eight at sleep still leaves us with precious eight hours. That should be enough to start the quest for excellence. After all, Article 10 Federal Constitution grants us that power to freely associate.

Finding comfort and solace in excellence is a worthy pursuit. Never too late, Folks, to out-fox the usual suspects bent on bending minds with their warped and twisted stinking thinking. Say now; not no, later.

The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.