Dr Azly Rahman will do public good if he speaks in simpler language of common man without bias and contradiction!

Essentialism by definition is the belief that a entities, groups and peoples share a set of unchanging characteristics or properties in such distinguishing way that without them they are no more that entity, group or people.

What Dr Azly said, in a nutshell, is that the kind of “Essentialism” that “at all cost be guarded” are the universal cultural beliefs and values of “honesty, piety, religiosity, industriousness, peacefulness, and harmony” in the stead of “ritualistic, paganistic, and “linguistic gatekeeping’ aspects of Cultural Essentialism” to be “deconstructed” and “demystified” (a simpler word, discarded).

He says the former will be arrived at by the “Evolving Self” with “Inner Conscience” “closer to our jugular vein”, per his in last paragraph.

Dr Azly’s statement that Essentialism lies in the Evolving Self is an oxymoron and a contradiction because Essentialism by definition is that which is the ultimate if not perfect form that is not susceptible to further evolving in (his words) the ever-changing present!

How could “piety” and “religiosity” be claimed universal or unchanging ????

His writing in very abstract and opaque language replete with rarefied philosophical references – sometimes obfuscating more than clarifying – rather than in simpler language may well serve a purpose, and a lesson to all of us.

You will note that “ritualistic, paganistic, and “linguistic gatekeeping’ aspects of Cultural Essentialism” to be discarded, are insinuated by him to be in part derived from the stories of “Torah, Bible, and the Quran” which are but mere “stories of the peoples who live in times uncharted by modern history” – not factoring in contemporary values and thinking…..

Had he questioned in simplier and more direct language stories of “Torah, Bible, and the Quran” understood by common men – and the framers of criminal charges in the AG’s Chambers – Dr Azly Rahman may end up sharing the same dock as Raja Petra, facing the same charge of sedition for insulting religion! :)

There is this argument by Mahathirists : if he could lead Malaysia out of the 1997 currency crisis, would he not be the best person to lead (whether directly or indirectly via proxy) the country in the face of this unprecedented global financial meltdown and to use unorthodox means to mitigate its effects?

TheWrathOfGrapes, well I have never said Mahathir led Malaysia out of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it’s the Mahathirists (supporters) and himself (you should read his book “The Challenge” he authored in 1986) who did, indeed eulogized his “contribution to the crisis”.

Mahathirists do so because : when Ringgit plummeted to RM5 per USD, they atribute to TDM’s ‘Noddynomics’/capital controls (fixing capital account transactions at RM3.80 to 1 UD$) as right medicine for ring fencing leveraged NEP assets from immediate fire sale to foreigners – undoing the NEP – if IMF prescription were followed to the hilt.

It is rumoured that TDM got his “unothodox” idea from 21 breakfast sessions of advisers and private think tanks.

There is doubt there’s anything original, if I am not mistaken, it has been done before in Philippines or may be elsewhere before (???)

Asian Currency crisis – it’s a big subject, beyond scope here. Its hard to even find a universally accepted definition of a currency crisis or its stages….

If one looks at causes beyond currency speculators but to multiple underlying factors, both sociopolitical and economic, in Thailand Indonesia Koreas & Malaysia – eg failures of financial regulation, lack of corporate transaparency and cronyism and mega projects and debt leveraging – TDM’s policies might well be one the major causes of the Crisis he claims he solved! :)

Detractors always say he “locked the barn doors after the horse has bolted”.

It may well be true. Malaysian economic recovery in the aftermath had much to do with other factors conducive to general regional recovery than and in spite of his unorthodox policies. Korea & Thailand using orthodox IMF prescriptions recovered even better. Malaysia might have recovered even better if it were not for the capital controls have dampening effect on market esp foreign investors’ confidence.

Thanks Godfather for info. I thought it was from Phillippines.

The word “essence “ characterizes a substance or a form.

In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess.

I wish to address with particular reference to the entity called politicians – of both sides of the Divide.

Here Godfather cites in posting Today at 15: 09.04 that the best example of how “essentialism trumps over everything else in Bolehland” is that “a crooked ex President of UMNO tells the next crooked President of UMNO to steer clear of cronyism and nepotism…And what does the next President of UMNO do upon receiving this advice ? He skips Parliament for fear of being questioned by the Opposition !”

Yes right. Going forward, may I ask further– why did the Opposition Leader on the first session of Parliament (13th Oct) seek to focus and question the Finance Minister (the next Prime Minister) on his allegedly outdated budget, saying that only “those enslaved and insane would support the budget”, criticising Datuk Seri Najib Razak for being “irresponsible and arrogant” for failing to show up for the debate in this present economic crisis and asking, rather snidely, whether the latter’s failure was because “he was too busy approving mega projects and getting involved in economic scandals such as the latest controversy over the purchase of the Euro-copter”?

Yes strong and dramatic attack but I thought Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, instead of distracting us with his criticisms of the budget and Najib, was supposed to move for a motion of no-confidence against the Prime Minister!

What happened to hullabaloo of previous month when all of the Opposition pressed the PM for a special session of Parliament to move the motion of no confidence on himself and his government saying you cannot wait until Parliament resumed after Ramandan due to the possibility of ISA arrest of Anwar in period before???

Well Anwar has not yet been arrested (till today) and Parliament has resumed : so where is your Motion iof no Confidence supposedly bnacked by sufficient (30 – 40) BN defectors?

Not a whisper.

We have not forgotten.

I submit to you that the essentialism of politics and politicians is misrepresentation and bull shit, and it maters not whether one is leading the BN or Pakatan Rakyat.

On the facts I believe this to be a fair comment.