Day 3 at Kampung Gajah: Venting frustration

Today my frustration got to boiling point. The lecture was on integrity and although he was saying good things such as the importance of honesty, work ethics, politeness, responsibility, fulfilling roles and duties...to be clean...squeeky clean but the truth was, I am fed up of being told what to do. Often we are told to be ethical, honest, to have Iman but more often than not, it is the people at the top who abuse power, take bribery and be less than honest.

The speaker mentioned about using the office vehicle for one's own purpose and one guy asked the question whether it is wrong to use the office vehicle to go for Jummah prayer. I thought to myself, 'Oh for God's sake, what are you saying then, don't let him go for Jummah?' so, I said...why are we making a big deal about people using the car to go for Jummah, which is a Fardh and yet, when there are people at the top using official cars and drivers to send their kids to school or using government properties as if it is their own, well why don't we talk about that? I don't quite understand what the answer was but that was simply the start of me venting my frustration

I said to the speaker, "I would like to complain" and so, I started complaining about bureaucracy, long procedures that are complicated and sometimes not even understood by the officers within the department. Information are not available to the public and with all these deficiency, people are tempted to give bribe to get things done even if they don"t need to. At the same time the public are frustrated because VIPs often get special treatment, they go through a different queue and sometimes a VIP room, like the one that VIPs go into to get their ID photo taken. It is a two-tier system and full of double standards.



I think everyone should have to go through the same process and wait at the same queue. There is no concept of VIP in Islam. The Prophet (saw) was not just a Messenger but he was also the leader of the Islamic state in Madinah but he suffered the same difficulties, same pain, same hunger as his sahabah and all those who lived in Madinah. When the state was at its early stages and it was low in funds, the Prophet (saw) went hungry as the people went hungry, he led the battles, was wounded in the battle of Uhud and he went through every hardship that the people went through. So why should Muslim leaders today have to be treated in a special way, different from the rest of the people. If Umar bin Al Khattab could enter Jerusalam as a conquerer, whilst holding the leash of a donkey with his servant riding on it because they were taking turns then, why do these people have to demand being given special treatment?

When I was in the UK, there was no hierarchy in the work place. As a student, I used to sit and have lunch with our Dean from King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry. KCL was one of the best Medical schools in the world and yet, our Dean was a simple man. I used to sit in his outpatient clinics and he would chat to us, asking our opinions about things. I never felt like he was the 'Dean' or that I had to show him 'respect' but I learned a lot from him, and I still remember a lot of things that he conveyed to us.

Sometimes I feel embarased that despite being a majority Muslim country, the Islamic culture is not practiced here. The concept of a horizontal leadership is not present here, that every person is valued and respected despite their status or positions. On the contrary, this concept of horizontal leadership is present more in the western countries. How did it become like this? How did we lose Islam in exchange for something rotten?

This VIP syndrome completely against our Islamic culture. Leadership is not about status, it is a responsibility and a trust from Allah to fulfill the duties of looking after the affairs of the people and protecting them. We should study the examples of our Muslim leaders in the past, starting with the best of examples Prophet Muhammad (saw) and set a criteria and standard in our minds of what kind of a leader a Muslim should be. Never forget that Allah swt has given the authority to this ummah. We have the power to choose our leader and we have the ability to implement the Islamic system.