Transcending dualism in public administration

**An edited version of this article was published in the September 2011 issue of the Penang Economic Monthly.

The old Greek philosophy has a famous law, the law of non-contradiction which says, a thing cannot be its opposite in the same time space continuum. In plain English, this  is what we call “Either..or” thinking, or in plainer English, a durian cannot be at the same time a mangosteen.

Jesus’ Answer to “where is justice?!”

We often ask or hear someone ask “where is justice!?” It is both a question and an angry taunt to the glaring injustices around us. And often there is an echo of helplessness to the question.

A friend of mine recently asked me what would an ideal justice system look like. I don’t know.

But I think Jesus was responding to this sort of frustration about justice undelivered when he said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…” (Luke 6:27)

Jesus of course, of all people, knew how it was like to be bullied and to be aggrieved without recourse. He was after all a child out of wedlock, a poor peasant living under colonial rule and was teaching against mainstream religious system. Only a few chapters ago, Luke said some people was trying to throw him off a cliff! (Luke 4:29)

Despite the injustice done to him, Jesus taught his disciples to,

Towards a Pro Growth, Pro Jobs and Pro Poor Local Government

Yesterday evening, as I was driving home from dinner with my wife, we saw two touching scenarios; the first, a blind man trying to make his way on a busy road to go to the safer inner road. He was shabbily-dressed but very strong-willed. We stopped our car and offered to ferry him, but he refused, so I led him into the inner road for him to continue his journey.

In the second scenario, I caught a glimpse of two kids playing near a public garbage bin, so I asked me wife to take a look and see what those kids were doing there. It turned out that hidden from my sight was someone, presumably their father, was salvaging items from the garbage bin.

We know that the poor we’ll always have with us,  but