“Insanity is contagious.”
– Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch-22’
ATAVISTIC leaders have endured threats, calamities, catastrophes and dangers by exhibiting an innate experience of mental stillness that can be developed in the right environment by sincere seekers.
While mental stillness stymies chaos, conflict and cacophony, mental illness is equally celebrated as paradigms of power, authority and audacity accompanied by arrogance.
People unwittingly and unknowingly hero worship mental illness in elected leaders while mocking mental stillness as a sign of stoic nothingness.
The separation of Malaysia from Singapore in 1965 is a case study of both mental stillness and illness. There’s a tremendous amount of inside intel from recently declassified documents in the British archives.
The creation of Malaysia is equally fraught with both mental stillness and illness. The former was uncomfortably evident by the rural people in Sabah and Sarawak fighting indecision and indifference.
Mental illness during the formation of Malaysia is found in the debates and deliberations of the British House of Commons. The exchange of letters between Malayan leaders and their British counterparts will inspire psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists.
The existing deformities in MA63 seem light years away from being persuasively and permanently fixed exemplifying the irreversible mental illness inherent in elected public officials.
Article 48(1)(e) Federal Constitution is clear on the issue of mental illness. I have not found a single incident in the record if this Article was ever invoked.
It’s still not late for PMX to demand an Article 48(1)(e) mentalassets evaluation and declaration of MPs in a similar spirit of them having to declare their physicalassets.
The Ministry of Health introduced the Mental Health Act 2001 (together with Mental Health Regulations 2010), which was seen as a turning point for mental healthcare as it contained detailed policy guidelines for the delivery of services.
The Act applies to elected politicians as was and is constitutionally mandated since 1957. Neither legislation nor the supreme law of the land will exact a toll on this mystifying issue of mental illness – the root cause of all socioeconomic and socio-political ills.
Wilfully, freely and voluntarily disobeying the Federal Constitution like it’s merely a parchment promise is a sure sign of mental deficiency that remains unremedied.
Psychologists say that mental stillness and strength is detectable and defined in overachievers, perfectionists while dreamers, rebels, avoiders, crisis-makers and the overwhelmed are assailed by mental illness.
The Madani government seems to be nonchalant in affairs of the mind and mindsets that provoke attitudes responsible for creating mind-boggling and mindless policies.
The embryonic Urban Renewal Act (URA) typically symbolizes mental illness like a constitutional right to unbridled capitalism.
Won’t it be cheaper to paint and spruce up dilapidated low-cost and medium-cost flats instead of sadistically demolishing them, and thereafter fighting over adequate compensation?
It’s crucial for property ownersto avail ofadat as validated in sharia law concerning land matters: Ramah v Laton [1927] 6 FMSLR 128; Fatimah v Haji Ismail [1939] MLJ 134; Tengku Jaafar & Anor. v State of Pahang [1987] 2 MLJ 74.
Individuals can sue the government and vice versa according to the Government Proceedings Act 1956 (Revised 1988). I am not encouraging a litigious society but promoting a culture of public interest litigation.
Mental illness seeps into the fracas when litigants believe they need a “lawyer”. In McKenzie v McKenzie [1970] 3 All ER 1034, 1039 h-j, Lord Justice Sachs enunciated the McKenzie Friend common law doctrine.
This public interest doctrine ensures unrepresentedlitigants having access to all available aid with someone assisting them by taking notes, organising documents, and even offering advice in court. The Court may even invite that person to speak.
Mental illness causes perpetual war raged upon pragmatic ideas in the marketplace of ideas. Daily battles are ongoing and unavoidable claiming punishable acts of sedition.
Another bout of mental illness is defined by hate speech advocates who relish the idea of clashing race, region and religion at the drop of a pin.
The mental illness associated with not arresting and charging these hate speech advocates is also a major contributor to this national pathos. Legislation is toothless, clawless and clueless.
But in the midst of all this offensive noise, chaos and cacophony, some have found solace and comfort in mental stillness that is never encouraged, promoted or advanced by public authorities.
The true “stillness” in Vedanta refers to the calm, unchanging state of the mind or the Atman (True Self) beneath the fluctuations of daily experience, achievable through practices like self-inquiry and meditation.
And then there is this phenomenon called “human nature”. A whole can of worms assail your senses when this issue is raised and questioned.
Government legitimizes mental illness when it does nothingto right the wrongs in its policies. It’s not surprising that many of elected leaders have some sort of mental issues.
U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, and M.K. Gandhi, all struggledwith mental health issues, often depression, says Tufts University psychiatry professor Dr. Nassir Ghaemi.
Uncontrollable mental illness has allowed the government to mould the minds and attitudes ofother peoples’ children through a highly questionable education system operated by bureaucrats instead of teachers.
Sun Tzu on the mental state cautioned that “weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy.” Ultimately, “the art of war” is the art of mental wellness.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune. The writer can be reached at chiefjudge@secamtektektribe.org.
