Monday, July 6, 2009

A note of encouragement

MR Tan Kin Lian

May I offer a note of encouragement to your good work.

You should not loose heart when the response to your suggestions may not be as good as you expected. People take time to respond. It takes time to manifest from inward to outward. Even "educated" people like me takes a long time to unwind the process from inside to outside.

One of the scary things we see in myself and others is the apathy of the heart and lethargy of the body to talk about half-justice and half-truth. I think to make people able to think is more important than winning the debate. Once the people is able to think, then we shall leave it to the people to decide. For example, I am a father too.

My job to to impact good value and character (to the best of our ability), teach them to think independently and pray that God will lead them in their pilgrimage of life. I cannot impose once they come of age.

I have the interest of looking at the recent China history. The Chinese people during late Qing has gone through much soul searching. Even great men like "Zheng Guo Fan" and "Li Hong Zhang", they are searching and trying very hard to institute change from within the institution. Zheng Guo Fan did not suffered humiliation as a result and was hailed as a great leader and teacher. Li Hong Zhang is being portrait as a "traitor" although he did a fair amount of good things for China. History can be enlighening and cruel. It may not apply directly to Singapore, to respect history is the beginning of humanness and humanity.

Thanks a lot and God bless.

CASHEW NUT