"The Iron Lady" and Leaders in Malaysia

The "Iron Lady" vs "IronMan" , yes, of course I would pick the Lady! A wonderful thumbs up biographical film, about an extraordinary leader in British modern history. (No wonder the leading actress and the film won many awards and deserve very positive reviews from many movie critiques)

This movie brandishes many famous quotes by Margaret Thatcher, also illustrates her sociopolitical thoughts and philosophy, and sharing stories about ups and downs in her career and her personal life.

I am definitely not a political right, still I admire her for her courage, her sheer political determination to realise and push for the change in the core things she strongly believes in. She stood firmly by her principles, was totally unfazed by her critics by doing what she deemed to be the right thing for the country (although not the popular thing).

"Your problem is that you haven't got the courage for this fight."
"One must be brave if one is to take the wheel."
"We will stand on principle, or we will not stand at all."
"yes, people will hate you today, but they will thank you for generations"

That is something our current leaders (BN) and future leaders (PR) need to seriously ponder on, and perhaps take a lesson from it. Would they dare to make a brave change and commit to their cause, even if that would mean not a popular move but a right thing to do? that is my major concern. 'Cause I also worry about PR being too populist and not paying too much attention in formulating how to solve or improve the social-politics structural problems.

Yes, the way of Margaret carried herself especially towards the end of her Prime minister carrier, borders to obstinance , eventually brought to her disgrace downfall (Power would sometimes transform some great leaders to arrogant bunch) . In the past (of Malaysia modern politics), only Dr. Mahathir resemble the Iron Lady, whom himself is also a strong character leader. The era of strongman politics is now over, and I never believe in one person's will shall be strongly imposed on the nation, be it Lee Kuan Yew or Dr. M. That is too risky and not democratic. Dr. M also operated the government by using Thatcher's model of privatisation policy which still left a deep impact to our Malaysian society since then. However, one good thing about Dr. M is that, unlike his 2 successors, he is not used to flip-flopping his policies, but to stand firm and defend for his ideas, his thoughts and his actions. At least one can see clearly about what direction Dr. M was leading us to, despite we do not agree with his way.

Najib is definitely what totally opposite to Margaret and Dr. M. He is a hypocrite , a populist (even more so than Anwar, although he always like to call his nemesis so), an opportunist, a flip-flop leader who has no concrete principles and political philosophy throughout his career (No, 1Malaysia is not a philosophy from him... that is also a political 'marketing' concept as flimsy as his character)

This Margaret's quote reminds me of Najib, and also it gives food for thought for myself:

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become."