Politicians must listen to their conscience


TO reflect on Malaysia Day this year, perhaps it is good to go back to basics and talk about conscience. 

Conscience, as we all know, is the “inner voice” in all of us as human beings or mere mortals – that which either judges/condemns or justifies/approves our thoughts, words and deeds – as a basic and fundamental definition. 

Conscience can be construed as “I” that has been called forth into existence by the Creator and therefore can only respond to the same divine call, whatever form or shape it takes (as per Hamann, the Radical Enlightener and overlooked formidable critic of the Enlightenment project).

So, conscience is necessary, whether one is approaching it from a secular or a theological/religious perspective. 

Without a conscience, we risk dehumanising ourselves. 

We risk stripping ourselves of dignity and integrity. 

Conscience is no longer the “substance” and “form” of our reason/reasoning – such that it’s now used to justify our casuistry, i.e. moral justification of something objectively immoral. 

The danger is, of course, we become so desensitised to casuistry that it becomes a norm (although still contrary to morality and religion) that the sense of shame is gone (even when conscience in its original state is still there albeit obscured and encrusted and corrupted). 

As the venerable Prof M. Kamal Hassan (theologian, philosopher and scholar) has written in his Corruption and Hypocrisy in Malay Muslim Politics – The Urgency of Moral-Ethical Transformation (EMIR Research, 2022), corrupt politicians have lost a sense of shame – which was originally hard-wired into us as creatures as an expression of guilt. 

Thus, in order to cope with guilt, we must first “sear” our conscience – with all sorts of justifications – an “artificially” constructed inner voice to “overcome” the natural (and supernatural intrinsic to the) inner voice that’s original to our constitution as human beings. 

When the searing of the conscience moves beyond the individual (which is already quite bad enough) to the institution and society, we have reached a very critical point.

Ordinary citizens can point to the (bad and evil) examples of leaders or they can just say they were following orders – like military leaders at the famous Nuremberg trial in the aftermath of World War II who insisted they were merely fulfilling their oath pledged to Hitler when carrying out orders to massacre civilian populations, for example. 

When Martin Luther stood at the Diet of Worms to declare he had no choice but to defy the institutional, religious and political powers of the day, he did so on the basis of (the interlocking nature of) conscience (and reason). 

Luther dared to defy the power-that-be because to do otherwise, he might as well have not existed in the first place. 

In short, how can I, who’s endowed with a conscience, “live” with myself when I go against it (i.e. my own conscience). 

In effect, it’s to create something less than human which then defines ourselves in relation to the world around us. We are pretty familiar with the breaches of consciences on a minor and daily scale – to which we are so accustomed as part of living in this world. 

And then, of course, we have the scammers who now seemed to be almost “ubiquitous” in their presence who think of nothing in fleecing even old-aged pensioners of their hard-earned savings, much less the hard-earned money of ordinary workers and employees. 

What about the possibility of collusion – necessarily implying the involvement of corrupt government officials which make possible the continuing existence of such scams. 

The fact that the scammers seem to have their “tentacles” spread far and wide might lend credence to some conspiracy and synergy among the corrupt sections of society. 

But all of these points to a far deeper rot that permeates our institutions and political system. 

The lack of sense of guilt and shame – and therefore “lack” of conscience – which characterises corrupt top politicians is the root cause of all problems besetting our beloved nation. 

We need to return to basics – reviving the ethos and consciousness of the conscience in the public sphere and life and of mainstream Malaysia. 

Religion, philosophy and life’s principles play a fundamental and critical role in safeguarding the necessity of the conscience in our lives. 

The political elite and establishment have long “neglected” or ignored their conscience in their (public) discourses and messaging. They have purposely shied away from the topic. 

Be that as it may, the centrality of conscience as embodied by ethics and values and principles needs to be reinstated into our public sphere and life once again. 

Without conscience as the substance and form of the uncompromising, non-negotiable and unchangeable principles, which in turn constitute the basis and boundaries of institutional and systemic reforms, our nation can’t move forward. – September 15, 2022.

* Jason Loh Seong Wei reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.



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Comments


  • Instead, many embody the "7 Deadly Sins" plus one ................ idiocy.....!!!

    Posted 1 year ago by Malaysian First · Reply