'Action comes out of thought'

"The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems ... and for this reason, an intellectual cannot fit into any role that might be assigned to him ... and essentially doesn't belong anywhere: he stands out as an irritant wherever he is." - Aung San Suu Kyi

Feb. 8, 2012
A Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

We are 39 days into this New Year of 2012. English writer Gilbert Chesterton said, "The object of the new year, ... is that we should have a new soul" -- a new beginning.

For the nearly 5 million Cambodians who live below the nation's poverty level, and the nearly half a million who have been forcibly evicted from their homes, a new beginning cannot come soon enough.

Human beings are creatures of habit. We think and act as we have always done. In time, our habits become fossilized and we are on auto-pilot. I am reminded of the saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got," and of Albert Einstein's oft-quoted definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The quality of anything we do, and our future, are determined as much by how we think as by what we know. Individuals can store countless data in their heads, but how each person integrates that information -- the quality of one's thinking -- varies greatly from person to person. Still, the skill of engaging in quality thinking can be taught, can be learned.

Ingrained in quality thinking are: Creativity (assimilating and reframing information to develop concepts and patterns, goals and objectives) and criticality (assessing and evaluating how creative thought has, or hasn't, led to achievement of a goal).

Trained in political science, I have written about my engagement in the discipline's conventional tasks to describe, explain, forecast and suggest courses of action. I applied them in the real world of Khmer and international politics. In 1990 I began my teaching career.

After 13 years in the classrooms, I retired. But the educator in me compelled me to continue writing. The topics about which I write now often are apolitical, for I am no longer active in the world of politics. I write to share. If it helps, that's good; if not, what's 10 minutes of reading?

I used Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's book, "The Voice of Hope," in my political science classes. Suu Kyi's answer to those who are conditioned to obey without questioning: Develop a "questing mind" that questions and seeks answers to what is and why it is so. Years in house arrest never broke Suu Kyi, physically or spiritually.

"Action comes out of thought," Suu Kyi said, and people who think and look for "ways and means of doing something ... will" find them. A questing mind helps people to withstand violence, oppression and that which is contrary to what is right and just, Suu Kyi said. She argues that every person is capable of developing a questing mind.

In a recent interview, Suu Kyi mentioned one person who kept her spirit alive during her house arrest: former Czech dissident Vaclav Havel, who died in December at age 75. Suu Kyi quoted Havel's words at length about the role of the intellectual in society: "The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems ... and for this reason, an intellectual cannot fit into any role that might be assigned to him ... and essentially doesn't belong anywhere: he stands out as an irritant wherever he is."

Many Cambodians speak longingly of a Khmer Aung San Suu Kyi -- as if the absence of one excuses their inability to organize and act. Yet, do they actually follow Suu Kyi's advice?

Those who study the elements of leadership insist there's not one leader but many leaders around us in the family, the office, the community and the country. There are a lot of leaders among Cambodians.

Involvement needed

Robert L. Helvey's "On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals" acknowledges a perception that leaders are born to lead. But he insists, "For all practical purposes the basic traits of leadership can be imparted by education, training and experience." Helvey presented those traits.

Helvey, who helped the Otpor Serbians bring down dictator Milosevic, asserted the "strategic nonviolent struggle may require that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people assume leadership positions throughout the movement if the people's will is to be successfully imposed upon authoritarian regimes."

Otpor leader Srdja Popovic agreed: To win a nonviolent struggle, "you must have hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands or millions of people. ... And those millions would never follow a Serb (or a foreigner) in Egypt" or elsewhere. They follow their own leaders.

Popovic said, "We don't tell (democracy fighters) what to do, but give them tools on how (nonviolent struggle) can be done. ... When they come to us, the first rule we tell them is never use violence. The second is never use foreigners to lead your uprisings."

This brings me back to a new beginning for 2012: Think smart -- creatively, critically and positively -- and act smart; be rational and engaged. Neay K'rudth's "Protest Smart Not Hard!" posted last month in the Khmer blog KI-Media, was indeed a timely creative piece -- a new beginning.

Last month, a respected Khmer elder reminisced with me about an old Khmer saying, "Toal Dob, Toal M'phei; Kom Toal Komnit" -- "Thwarted 10, Thwarted 20; Don't be out of ideas." You can strike out 10 to 20 times, but never allow yourself to run out of ideas. It is ideas that will lead us to solutions to our problems.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.