What would you do if you said something very unflattering about someone behind his/her back and your comments were suddenly leaked out – not just to the person concerned but to everyone who knows him/her? All fingers point at you and the “victim” gets commiserating hugs.
Alamak! Cocktail talk only mah. Don’t over-interpret. Don’t take the comments out of context. Nations’ ties are based on mutual interests and not on gossip. Makes sense? Well, yes. In business and in politics, we don’t have to like or respect each other if we just want to strike deals and get things moving. We may or may not know whether our business partner, associate or customer likes us. In most instances, we just don’t care or don’t want to know. Everyone is happy as long as things continue to run smoothly and we see the results or the money.
Do these leaks really “sow confusion and fail to provide a complete picture”? Well, nobody is confused and we sure get the underlying picture if not the whole picture. Who would be naive enough to think that the smiles and handshakes are real or mean anything at all? I would be utterly shocked if our government invests in Myanmar because they like their generals.
At the workplace, which Jane would want to know what her colleagues say about her fields of acne or bulging waistline behind her back? Jane knows it and she probably knows that he colleagues notice it, but as long as nobody says anything about it, Jane suffers no emotional trauma. Out of earshot, out of mind.
But what if someone who is contemplating the next big thing for reality TV secretly videos and plays back all the pantry talk about Jane’s acne and bulging waistline? Or someone’s son wishes that his Daddy would always tell the truth and that wish comes true, ending with the hilarious results we saw in the movie Liar Liar?
Except that in real life, the results will probably be a lot less hilarious. The character played by Jim Carrey’s nightmare came true for a whole bunch of politicians with the current Wikileaks saga. Somebody whose country has invested millions in Myanmar has said that talking to the generals there is like talking to dead people. That probably won’t hurt the investments there and the generals probably knew how people thought of them all along, but having such things publicly aired will result in a huge loss of face of the insulted party if they don’t protest.
Protest they did. Both government and opposition parties in Malaysia have protested over some of the less than flattering things our diplomats said about them. Again, I’m not surpried if they knew it all along. It’s just that when other countries hear about it and snigger under their breath, the insulted party would have to react or be ridiculed. It’s not as if they have evaesdropped and heard it by accident. The whole world knows that they have been insulted. Face-saving action is in order. Sometimes, such face-saving actions can have disastrous results – which is exactly why we don’t want our unflattering thoughts about others to be revealed to all and sundry. Private conversations, especially those involving sensitive areas, should be treated like private parts.
But there are some verbal exhibitionists who don’t even bother to hide their thoughts. Someone by the name of Janet Chew had this to say:
- As a Singaporean, I am proud of the achievement of our country today. We have done so much better than our neighbouring countries and none of our neighbouring country has the capability to compete with us thus far. Therefore to label them “stupid” is not an overstatment. If they are not stupid, then we would be in trouble. Our biggest competitors now are in fact China and India.
Wikileaks? No, there is nothing to leak on this one. It appeared in Temasek Review and I think I know which “political camp” she belongs to. That makes it scary. A tiny city state, we are totally dependent on other countries to feed and clothe us. No matter how advanced and intelligent we are, we still need food and it would be incredibly unwise to insult those who provide us with these essentials. Why would they want to “compete” with us if they get pissed off? They can simply starve us.
I often said this during my incamp training. If our country is ever threatened by war because of this sort of insensitive elitist talk, we shoud not even be talking about mobilising troops. We should instead think of tying the likes of Janet Chew up and handing them over to the people they insulted.
