The Peter Principle, men in high public office and the emotional ostrich-stancers

Caveat emptor : This post contains one joke of and concerning one living person and yet another, now deceased.

Hyper-sensitive readers are forewarned that they may find the joke in poor taste, if not downright rude.

As the author shall not be entertaining any requests or demands for apologies or retractions of this post, readers are advised to not go beyond this point if they fear that they may be left disturbed should they continue.

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Let me deal with the ostrich-stancers first.

Ostriches are famed for burying their head in the sand. Actually, they don’t bury their heads in the sand but are nosing around for food.

But they look like they’ve buried their heads in sand.

Ostrich-stancers are people who emulate the ostrich.

They, however, are not looking for food.

An ostrich-stancer buries his or her head in the sand as he or she does not want to face the truth.

An emotional ostrich-stancer is someone who allows his or her emotions to blind them from the truth.

Eight commentators took exception to the ‘I no speaking Inglis’ post.

Mostly, the rebuke was that I should not speak ill of the dead, and that I should not poke fun at the late GB’s poor command of the English language.

I am grateful that the greater majority of readers could see the point I was trying to make and that the very title of the post itself was directed at one who had feigned a poor grasp of the English language.

If you will view the post again, you will note that I merely narrated one of the many jokes that had made its rounds some time back. I did not conjure the same.

Some of those who took exception reprimanded me for denigrating one who, so they say, had given much to the country.

Adam, in response to these, said in his comment:

Can you look back in history and tell us what happened to a few hundred acres of govt land in Sg Buloh, first turned into a golf club then given to Hong Leong? You will then realise how great the man was…

To this, I will merely add the matter of MARA funds being utilised to purchase some 400 memberships of that certain golf club at inflated prices, and the matter of non-performing loans to the tune of some RM300 million owed to a certain local bank.

I guess we have different viewpoints about his contribution to our nation. You are entitled to yours, whilst Adam and I are entitled to ours.

I’m just wondering whether in forming your views, you are being emotional ostrich-stancers.

If so, you are entitled to. Just don’t expect all and sundry to follow suit.

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Muhammad sent in several comments. I’m going to reproduce just one.

…haris why are you so quiet? you are enjoying the quarrel? or you just don’t care. you are not man enough to say you admit your mistake and sorry for it. You uphold your ego for your ego is much more important than all the great contributions ghafar baba gave to our nation.

or should i put it this way, anything related to UMNO is useless, and UMNO never contribute to this country then only will u be happy??

you only want to hear/see what you want to see. that’s why when I commented against you and ask you to retract this post, you are dead silence. If you don’t have the gut to say i’m sorry, don’t go around demonstrating or showing your machoness among hindraf group etc.. since you can’t even bow down and admit your mistake..

no person in this world is perfect, the different is some acknowledge it, some doesn’t..

Enjoying the quarrel?

Didn’t know there was one!

I have no difficulty apologising if I think it is warranted. Enough apologies proffered in this blog are testimony to this.

In this instance, I do not see that one is called for.

What I’m going to do, though, is to narrate another joke that made its rounds some time back, and then address the matter of the Peter Principle and its relevance to the men in high office in our government.

This old joke is about one dead, a fellow called Marcos, and another who’s still around, Dr M.

Shortly after Dr M became PM, he made a study trip to the Philippines to consult Marcos on how he (Marcos) had enriched himself off his nation’s wealth.

Flattered, Marcos took Dr M to the top most floor of his office building, went to the window, pointed out to all the skyscrapers out there and said, ‘See those buildings. Government buildings built on grossly inflated costs. The surplus cost is mine. Privately owned buildings only approved after I’m taken care of’.

Dr M thanked Marcos for the lesson.

Years later, Dr M extended an invitation to Marcos to visit Malaysia to see for himself how well Dr M had learnt from that one visit to the Philippines.

Dr M took Marcos to the top most floor of his office building, went to the window, pointed out and said,  ‘See those buildings. Government buildings built on grossly inflated costs’.

‘But there are no buildings out there’, a bewildered Marcos replied.

‘I know. The entire building cost is mine’, a smiling Dr M replied.

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Dr M has been the subject of many other jokes, too.

In fact, most people in public, political office are not spared.

There are no sacred cows in politics.

What Muhammad and the others who have taken offence must ponder on is this.

Jokes about Dr M never hinged on his not being clever, or not having the requisite acumen to hold the office of PM.

Why?

Cos Dr M is indeed very clever and did have the requisites for that office.

In fact, most jokes about Dr M turned on how he misapplied his cleverness whilst in office for his own ends.

Jokes about GB, on the other hand, usually poked fun at his perceived inadequacies for the high office he held.

Why?

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The Peter Principle postulates that ‘in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain’.

When Hussein Onn took over the PMship after the death of Tun Razak, he was left with the task of choosing his deputy.

Of the three vice-presidents then, the one who was the most senior in age and who had garnered the most votes was Ghafar. Tengku Razaleigh was next, again both in terms of age and votes garnered. Last on both counts was Dr M.

All things being equal, the UMNO tradition for the ascension to high office would have dictated that Hussein appoint Ghafar as his deputy.

Instead, Hussein appointed Dr M.

We are left to speculate on the reasons why Ghafar was bypassed.

Could it be that Hussein, realising that his deputy would very likely one day ascend to the office of PM, thought Ghafar did not have the requisites for such high office?

Ghafar, it is reported, resigned from the cabinet in protest.

In 1981, Hussein resigned and Dr M took over the PMship. In that same year, following the UMNO elections, Musa Hitam was voted as deputy president of UMNO and duly appointed deputy PM.

In 1986, Musa resigned from the deputy PMship, citing irreconciliable differences with Dr M and, at the UMNO elections in the following year, teamed up with Razaleigh to take on Dr M for the leadership of UMNO.

Who did Dr M pick as his running mate?

The one bypassed by Hussein.

Dr M endorsed Ghafar to run for the position of deputy president of UMNO, and with that, put him in line for the office of deputy PM.

Ghafar went on to win and became deputy PM.

Why did Dr M pick Ghafar?

Did Dr M think Ghafar had the requisite credentials to be the next PM?

Again, we are left to speculate.

Remember that Dr M had just been abandoned by an equally intelligent deputy, Musa, who was now conspiring to unseat him.

Ghafar had strong grassroots support. Having Ghafar aligned to Dr M would have served the latter well.

I suspect, though, that as important, if not more, than Ghafar’s grassroot support, was Dr M’s perception that Ghafar would be so grateful for Dr M’s undoing of the injustice inflicted on Ghafar by Hussein bypassing him in 1981 that Ghafar would never contemplate ever challenging Dr M for the presidency of UMNO.

I also suspect that Dr M, after Musa, had had enough of clever deputies and that, in this regard, Ghafar fitted the bill.

If I am correct, Dr M paved the way for Ghafar’s ascension to the office of deputy PM, for all the wrong reasons.

Six years later, like it or not, Dr M found himself lumbered with another clever deputy.

Anwar managed to unseat Ghafar!

Five years later, after ousting Anwar, who did Dr M anoint?

Pak Lah!

Why?

Except for the reasons of strong grassroots support, I suspect for the same reasons that he earlier picked Ghafar.

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From the time Dr M helmed UMNO, ascendancy to high office both in the party and government has not been about the best person with the best credentials and a proven track record in governmental management getting the top job.

Ascendancy became a means of ‘pay back’, not for excellent service in the public sector, but for excellent servitude to the political supremo.

Never mind that the newly promoted is completely inept for the task at hand.

UMNO divisions that now wield tremendous power in deciding the fate of party hopefuls, themselves give little thought to the needs of the nation as a whole and the best man for that top job, but rather focus on what might be in it for them if  the ascension of their local leader to the first, second and third tiers of power in the party should come to pass.

Divisions that will in the coming days nominate Najib, Tyson Rustam etc will not take on board current issues and controversies that hang over the heads of these men.

They will be ostrich-stancing in the days to come.

Is it any wonder, then, that this nation is in the cesspool that it is?

Posted in: Digressions