Harness 3H skills
Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Learning Curve: Perspective
New Sunday Times - 23-2-2014
REVIVING EDUCATION: Leaders have to employ their heads, hands and hearts to transform the landscape
THE Chinese philosopher Mencius, or Mèng Zî (ca. 372-289 BC), was quoted as having said, “...without a mind directed by compassion, one is not human". This succinctly brings home the point that to be "human" is to temper the mind with intangibles such as compassion that permeate from the heart.
Nelson Mandela implied the same when he said: "A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination."
These two quotes illustrate that a good mind (or intelligence) is not sufficient for a person to function well unless he has a good heart too.
As narrated in a hadith, Prophet Muhammad provided the context when he said: "Verily, there is a piece of flesh in the body if it is sound the whole body becomes sound but if it is corrupted, the whole body gets corrupted -- and that is the heart."
In modern terms, this may be analogous to the finding that possessing a high IQ (intelligence quotient) is no longer adequate for a successful life if EQ (emotional intelligence) is not nurtured with the same vigour.
In fact, it has been increasingly shown that the impact of EQ on a person's life is far greater than IQ when it comes to making a difference! This is especially so when grooming leaders who can successfully predict and navigate the future.
In light of this, the initiative by the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) to host the two-day session, themed, Soul-driven Leadership -- Reviving the Soul of Higher Education, was both timely and challenging.
Attendees, who included senior academicians and administrators, were exposed to an array of experiences and ideas as well as discourses on the need to make a paradigm shift from conventional norms and practices of leadership.
The top 10 trends in 2014 were revealed at the recent World Economic Forum and a lack of values in leadership was ranked by global significance at No. 7. It is no wonder that the world, including institutions of higher learning worldwide, is in turmoil.
In his keynote address at the AKEPT event, the eminent scholar-thinker Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas reminded the audience that man has "spiritual and rational cognition such as the heart and the intellect" that render him the "potentiality to contain within his self-guidance and wisdom".
Consequently the purpose of seeking knowledge is to produce a good (universal) man, not merely a good (global) citizen. After all, according to Syed Muhammad Naquib, a good man will no doubt also be a good citizen, but it is not necessarily so the other way round.
The same applies to human capital. There is a focus on human capital at the expense of the human being. Therefore, it is not surprising to read a recent newspaper article headlined "Seeing red over white-collar crimes".
A whopping RM1.775 billion was reportedly lost through scams, embezzlement, criminal breach of trust and other white-collar crimes (read: committed by educated people) last year. Kuala Lumpur, presumably where there are many more "educated" people, took the cake with the highest losses due to white-collar crimes involving RM943 million.
This can be traced back to a soul-crushing experience of education as noted by William Hazlitt (1778-1830) when he wrote at the beginning of the 19th century that man does not become what by nature he is meant to be, but what society makes him.
"The generous feeling, and high propensities of the soul, as it were, shrunk up, seared, violently wrenched, and amputated, to fit us for our intercourse with the world."
Unfortunately the educational landscape has further deteriorated since Hazlitt. Universities are becoming high-priced occupational training centres where the soul is left to wither away.
Reviving the soul of higher education, as advocated by Syed Muhammad Naquib, calls for the restructuring of the academic and administrative system based on priorities, and it is futile to attempt short-term myopic measures in providing a solution to a problem of this magnitude.
This must be an urgent task ahead for AKEPT and the Education Ministry in their grand plan to transform education for the future where institutional leaders such vice-chancellors harness 3H skills associated with not just their hands and heads, but equally important, their hearts too!