Your concept of "better" must be global.

I went to the library yesterday because I was even more glum than the day before, and needed to throw myself into researching and writing whatever came to my head. I also brought The Three Musketeers with me in case I felt like practising French, but didn't get around to it in the end. What I did instead was to meander, with some enjoyment, through the "Two Speeches on Race" essay in the New York Review, comparing Abraham Lincoln's speech given at Cooper Union in 1860 to Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union." What I like about American politicians is that a large bulk of them are lawyers, so they are very rigorous in their thinking. Some Malaysian politicians who are royal or from the city are lawyers, and members of the opposition are lawyers, heads of civil society organizations are lawyers, but the ones setting the tone for the country are not lawyers -- they are wannabe tycoons. That's the impression I get from talking to the people who know them. "Wannabe" because they don't really create wealth, they're on the boards of big companies and get compensated for hooking the company up with investors. But they're not really passionate about the actual business; their involvement, though important, is still shallow. I'm sure some of them might be passionate about making Malaysia a better place, but even then, what they think is "better," to me is suspect. Unless everyone has had a chance to live in several foreign countries in their lifetime, and I mean live, not just stick to other Malaysians, but live amongst the people, go to their homes, eat their food, date their men, then of course their point of view is bound to be provincial. In this age, your concept of better must be global.

A lot of people called Obama provincial, because he had never been to the Middle East. But the truth is, Obama had a foreign father, even if he was an absentee father, and lived in Indonesia for a bit with his mother, followed by wildly different places in his own country, like Hawaii and Kansas. I would say that the variety of places and people he's come in contact with is enough to give a person a sense that the world is vast. And that's the opposite of provincial. He probably understands that there are many people in this world, each believing different things. The point is not to think that what you believe is truth, but that beliefs are neutral. Also, understand -- really understand -- that beliefs form the foundation for what we manifest in life. If you want to be a good person, examine your beliefs and be prepared to change them again and again until you think you've hit the sweet spot.