Wisdom of Foresight

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (page 14)
December 15th, 2011
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/239158

A few years ago there was a landslide along Jalan Duta after a downpour. For weeks it was covered with tarpaulin and sealed off with cautionary tape. It was alarming and personally worrying. Each year there are mini landslides, erosion and siltation around the Damansara Heights-Jalan Duta area. Fast forward to today and a short distance from the said landslide area, acres of land have been cleared for development – development in an area already highly congested and clearly prone to landslides. It’s considered prime land today, but what will it be in years to come?

Certainly when the Honda factor in Rojuna Industrial district, Ayutthaya in Thailand was built, no one could foresee the whole factory sinking in flood waters – or could they? We cannot change the weather or confidently predict swelling rivers and the breaking of riverbanks, but the wisdom of foresight might caution against building in a low-lying area or on a hillside that is already unstable.

Foresight is necessary in development and in the progress of every country. Post independence, our leaders made a calculated decision to shift from an agriculture based economy to an industrial one, not foreseeing the need to be able to self-sufficiently feed ourselves. Of course that shift has made us the third largest Asean economy and ranked 30th in the world, but what good is it if food supply is low and people cannot feed themselves because floods in neighbouring countries have affected not only the supply of electronic goods but basic daily foods – fruit, vegetables and even chillies?

When we talk about foresight, it doesn’t just stop at predicting what may happen but the courage to make painful yet necessary decisions to forfeit immediate gain for long-term collective stability. Such great foresight can be found in country constitutions and certain UN declarations – the blueprints of society.

I have always wondered in admiration of those who wrote these documents and the wisdom they possessed to include sections that perhaps at the point of writing were not needed but for the future may be extremely necessary. If we look at the Malaysian Constitution, one has to wonder why the founding fathers included a whole second section to protect Fundamental Liberties. Perhaps they had a “crystal ball” or the pure genius foresight to imagine its imperative need in today’s Malaysia where civil liberties are being taken away.

Sadly, instead of safeguarding the sanctity of the Constitution, today’s politicians have made it a scapegoat to promote their own personal agendas and beliefs. They have been allowed to do so also because we the people do not know our own Constitution as we should nor do we confidently know our rights and exert them. We choose to be ignorant and let a handful contest, thanks to scaremongering, yet with every new bill passed, our freedom net gets pulled in, further limiting our constitutional liberties.

Not only do our government and policy makers need foresight – we the people do too. When new laws and bills are deliberated, it is our business to know them well because they affect us, our children and our children’s children. Maybe today the Peaceful Assembly Bill does not affect you personally, but some day it will, just like the impending Computing Professionals Bill 2011. We have to remember that tomorrow is built on what we allow to happen today.

We can tell ourselves that laws enacted will not be enforced; they are just there because they need to be – but some day someone will dig them up and use them. What then can we do when we are bound by the law – all because years past we didn’t have foresight.

Natalie believes that the Constitution may be an “elastic compilation of rules” easily manipulated; yet those who pervert it should rightly be deposed.

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