Think Big Dream High,E 20 – People do not want to think in a simple way

Too much thinking

1.Everyone wants to impress the others. This usually happens during interaction, we try hard to impress the other party. That should be done. We failed to communicate if we cannot impressed our audience.

2.The issue we want to bring across stop short. In trying to impress, most of the time we expressed our messages in a long winded way.

3.We use expressive language and jargons to make it look intellectual. Using stylish language and using language with class. Armed with statistics to the last two decimal points. The audience looked impressed and stay tuned to what is being delivered.

4.However, most of the time we overlooked the real issue. We focus on the non importance. It looked good, impressive, with class and sophistication but way out of line. This is due to no fault of no one. It’s just that sometimes we think too much, to the extend that we missed the real issue that need to be solved.

Reality in Life

1.The real issue is set aside and the side issue takes centre stage. Say for example, the issue is on fishermen, instead the debate focus on cats.

2. Why cats? The fishermen catches fish and fish is a cat’s favourite food. No more discussion on fishermen and fishes but the cat’s issue is elaborated and discussed.

3.We got carried away and not focusing on the real issue i.e. the problems of the fishermen. We walked away from the real issue and tried to impress the audience with the cat story. In our presentation to support our story on the cats, we showed statistics, graphs, references and charts to impress the audience. Nothing is being mentioned on fishermen, maybe just a little bit on fishes.

4. In the end we derive solutions for the wrong problems. The real issue remained unsolved forever.

5. That is why, year in year out we have not been able to solve the real problem, regardless of the number of resolutions prepared and presented to the authorities. The same old problems keep cropping up.

6.A student who interpreted an examination question wrongly resulted in him being the only failure for the examination.

7. In a bigger scenario, if the authorities wrongly implemented a policy, millions of my countrymen’s community will suffer the consequences and be victimized. The effects will be felt far into the future generations to come. The impact is beyond our imagination.

8.The Felda Scheme appeared to be the most successful and effective programme for eradication of poverty among my countrymen. It was founded by the late Tun Abdul Razak, the father of our current Prime Minister.

9.The late Tun Razak understood for a fact that the basis for My countrymen and the country to become rich and successful are as follows; i) My countrymen must own property ii) My countrymen must work on a full time basis on the strength of their capability and ability i.e. as farmers, rubber tappers, carry out agricultural activities iii) The country as a whole benefited from the programme.

10.That is what Felda is all about. It gave opportunity for My countrymen to live comfortably and owning properties. Millions of My countrymen and their families benefited from the Felda scheme. The country became popular as the largest producer of oil palm and rubber. A programme implemented on the basis of a simple issue and a very clear way of thinking on how to solve problems faced by my countrymen. It has proven itself to be very effective and successful.

Tips

1.We need to constantly refer to the issue we want to resolve. Try to make it simple and solve it as it is. Do not complicate matters. Do not create unnecessary assumptions and cloudiness to it. To the extent that programmes being implemented have no clear goals.

2.As an example, how to make my countrymen contribute and participate actively and meaningfully towards the country’s economic development process?

3.The issue is what kind of profession and the number of my countrymen’s workforce that will benefit from the country’s economic development process?. This input is crucial in producing more quality and professional workers, entrepreneurs and businessmen. So that the average income of our community increases in tandem with the increase in the country’s average income.

4. In the process, we invited the experts and the intellectuals to discuss and provide answers to this issue. A lot of research and references made. A lot of discussions, ideas, comments and views obtained. A lot of resolutions made. Most of the resolutions however narrowed down to issues such as i) The need to increase the number of tuition classes for our children. ii) The need to create a special fund to sponsor the studies and tuition classes of our children. iii) The need to have only one school session from 7.30 am to 4.30 pm. iv) The need to teach science and mathematics in Bahasa Melayu. v) The need to have more boarding schools for students in the rural areas and many more relating to the side issues. These issues looked important enough. So a lot of time has been spent to discuss the reasons as to why my countrymen’s students do not excel in their studies.

5.In actual fact we already knew the answers. A lot of statistics available to explain the subject matter. What we need is the solution and how to do it right in an effective manner.

6.The truth of the matter, we lack discussion on the methods and programmes on how to increase the number of students in the technical and engineering streams much needed to be the effective contributors to our economic growth. We do not discuss the ways and means to increase the number of my countrymen’s workforce, five to ten years in the future, to be 70% qualified in the technical and engineering field. We lost focus as we do not comprehend the real issue that need to be solved.

7.As a result, until now and probably forever we will not have enough technical, engineering and technological savvy community to be able to develop, invent or innovate our own new and competitive technologies. We are just good in using and importing Western, Japanese, Korean or now Chinese technologies and products.

8.A lot of resources wasted, although there were some good ideas that came out of the process and exercise. All presenters were able put their points across. The audience were committed and gave their honest opinion. However, most of the time we failed in addressing the real problems.

9.The fact that we do not comprehend the real issue that need to be solved, make us largely responsible in providing solutions to side issues of non importance and way out of line. This is simply due to our countrymen not thinking in a simple way to solve a simple problem. We need to think big dream high but minus the sophistication.