Do We Seriously Need Leaders?

I am prompted to ask such Q after reading Adik Wan Hidayat's comment in my earlier post here: -

WanHidayat said...

Hurrrmmm....To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn't know where he is going....hehehe

January 28, 2010 3:22 PM

Fi-sha said...

Dear Adik

Indeed, it is true but first question we must ask ourselves - do we want to change for better?

Prophet Muhammad SAW (PBUH) once says, "Four things support the world: -

1. The learning of the wise,

2. The justice of the great,

3. The prayers of the good, and

4. The valor of the brave”

Based on that, who needs leaders don't you think Adik?

All we need is to do what we should do towards goodness to all as mentioned above by Rasulullah SAW (PBUH) because "Goodness is the only investment that never fails” (Henry David Thoreau).

So, looking at our current predicaments that seem to grow bigger, lousier and sadder and the kind of 'jokes' we tell the whole world, who needs leaders anyway? All we need now are heroes because Mark Twain once said, "If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes".

So, let me ask you this Q - Are you satisfied with what's going on? If you feel giddily happy, please share with me how I could be one. If you're not, be your hero and that brings me back to what Rasulullah (PBUH) said about the four things that support the world.

So, what if you are still skeptical, because most malaysians are (well, look at the number of 'fence-sitters') and if we do become heroes in out own terms, how long would it take to change this Ibu Pertiwi, kan?

I just finished reading Paulo Coelho's "By The River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept" and presto! I found an answer. In the book, Padre shares with Pilar about scientific studies carried in one of the islands in Indonesia. A scientist showed a monkey to clean the banana before it's being eaten. After a while, all the monkeys in that island rinse the bananas and the scientist opined that these monkeys know that the banana tastes better when it's clean. For unknown rational, logical reasons, he found out that monkeys in other islands do the same thing. How could that be possible when not one of the earlier monkeys 'migrated' to other islands, and if they could, how could they stand the treacherous waters? The scientist, finally, wrote his conclusion - When one from human race evolves, [eventually] the entire human race will evolve.

So, if the monkeys, who share 93% of their genes with us upright standing Homo Sapiens, know that the banana tastes better when it's clean, how about us Homo Sapiens - do we not know that independence tastes better when the system is clean?

Let me wrap this up with a quote from a magnificent lady, like many others who regard her as Hero: -

“And can I do that alone? No. So there is a whole army of youth that can do it. So I suppose my mission is to reach as many of those young people as I can through my own efforts”
~ Dame Jane Goodall

Go on, be a Hero!