正气 Zhèng Qì and 邪气 Xié Qì

I posted an article “A Question of Zhì Qì (志气)” in my blog several days ago and was (and am) still surprised to find it being heavily shared by both friends and strangers. The last count was more than 30K. (One earlier post of mine – “The Dragon Has Been Awakened” received 113K visits, but that was in August 2020.)

A friend who had read the article wrote to relay a suggestion from a friend of his. He thinks my discussion should have also included the lack of zheng qi (正气) in the US leadership today. He contends that the US leaders have deviated from the practice of zheng qi, hence the country is now courting the anger of not only the community of nations but also the “Sky” and this has resulted in the US being plagued by so many problems.

Zheng 正 means upright, correct. straight, just, or principled; and qi 气 , a form of metaphysical energy or aura. Zheng qi taken as a term means “righteousness, correctness, uprightness and, at the highest behavioural plane, the embodiment of a cause that is worthy of Heaven’s praise.

I can fully understand this reader’s conclusion. Ours is a Confucian/Daoist (more of the mystic stream than Lao-tze's philosophical school)/Buddhist culture. Many believe of us in retribution, of karma. If you do something good, you get rewarded – in this life, or the next life, and it will also flow to your loved ones. If you commit a sin, you get punished. Personally, even though I am still quite ambivalent about such beliefs, I am happy to keep an open mind regardless – simply because a fear of retribution will always make one think twice before he or she commits a bad deed.

However, I do want to push that reader’s conclusion a little further. To me, the lack of, or the failure to exercise, zheng qi alone should not be "sinful" enough for one to court the wrath of Heaven. We commonly see innocent or weak people being bullied in public or in work places, how many of us really dare to speak out for them?

American leaders are not only bankrupt of zheng qi, but they are in fact being possessed by xie qi (邪气). Xie means evil, perverse, or vicious, and one who harbours xie qi towards someone will do everything to injure his victim, usually out of spite or jealousy. It is diametrically the opposite of zheng qi.

On a geopolitical scale, the Holocaust in Europe and the atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II were acts of xie. I am now convinced that Biden and his team are also embarking on a journey of no return – the creation and manifestation of a xie cult in G7 – in their mad crusade to retard China at all costs. 

We can trace America’s brand of racism all the way back to its founding fathers’ days – the genocide against Native Americans (whom we used to call Red Indians) and the cruelty they inflicted upon the African slaves. They reluctantly entered World War II and emerged as the superpower par excellence. Chinese in America faced extreme McCarthyism in the aftermath of the Korean War, even though many had toiled hard to help build America’s railways.

The Statue of Liberty is supposed to be a symbol of hope for those who want to escape from political, social, and economic suppressions, but has there been equality for the people of colour? Yes, only if you are living at the top of the food chain.

When CIA sold the world that Communism was bad and there was a need to stop the domino effect in the wake of its setbacks in Korea and Vietnam, it went on to overthrow governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Several leaders were brutally murdered. And after 9/11, it went on to flatten Afghanistan, and destroy Iraq and Libya. Its destablisation efforts remained unabated to this day – Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and, the latest, Russia. Only one leader dares to give the US the middle finger. He is North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Not all these acts were xie in nature. Some were borne out of their misplaced belief in the superiority of their political, social, and economic systems and "values", especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Indeed, Bill Clinton made Zhu Rongji sweat hard when he was working on China's application to join the WTO. On seeing China's rise, Barack Obama also declared the US would pivot itself Asia Pacific. This was followed by Trump's initiation of the trade war against China. But I would not classify these actions as xie. They were bargaining means to extract advantages for America.

What Joe Biden is doing is totally xie. The war in Ukraine has all the hallmark of his xie qi . Much of the clear-headed world, including many Americans, knows that it is his proxy war against Russia. Ukraine is suffering much destruction and many lives have been lost (7 Ukrainians to 1 Russian), yet the puppeteer is pushing Zelenskyy to fight on. Authoritative sources both in America and elsewhere have said that much of the US and its allies’ aid has gone into or benefited private pockets, and much of what we have read in the mainstream about Ukraine’s successes is far from true. 

Yet Biden's principal bedfellows – leaders in the UK, Canada, and Japan – are bent on supporting him come what may. (Australia is still being counted in; but I suspect its prime minister Albanese is one who has some grey matter up his brain. He is just palying along, knowing that he cannot dismount the tiger that Morrison has brought in.) Thanks to Seymour Hersh, everyone knows who the culprits behind the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines are, yet the Garman leaders are playing dumb. You also have lesser leaders like the Filipino president Marcos Junior and South Korean president Yoon. These supporters of Biden are certainly also devoid of zheng qi.

Russia is being heavily sanctioned. But these sanctions have also opened the eyes of the world, including many of the US's hitherto strong allies on the need to protect their reserves and assets outside the US systems. 

We also know Biden and his team are combing every debris in the battle fields in Ukraine to find anything to implicate China, which is their ultimate target. Biden needs an excuse to start a proxy war with China. Where else can be a better least-cost battleground than Taiwan? Biden’s design is borne out of xie intent!

Fortunately, China has a leader that has all the wisdom our great sages. Xi Jinping is the embodiment of zheng xi. Internally, he is shaping a China that can offer its people "our tomorrow will always be better than today". Hundreds of millions have been alleviated out of poverty. He is unleashing the spirits of 吃苦 (chī kǔ, which literally means “eat bitterness” but is more a metaphor to describe one's extreme preparedness to endure hardship) of its huge population to transform the nation to earn its rightful place. Its achievements have been so phenomenal that they are being seen as life-and-death threats to the US’s concept of itself – the right to lead and dictate. And Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party is a willing pawn for Biden to use to provoke hopefully a war with China. Xi knows exactly what Biden and his team are up to. Economically, China is no longer at the mercy of the US, rather it is the other way round now. Militarily, China must be able to stare down the US and they are almost, if not already, there in many aspects.

Externally, Xi has shown the world his zheng qi in many areas – the benefits that his Road & Belt Initiative has brought to many parts of the developing and underdeveloped world, the shaking of hands between Saudi and Iran, and the realization of Zelenskyy’s dream to speak with Xi personally. If the Nobel Peace Prize is worthy of its purpose, Xi should have been awarded three times!

Coming back to Biden’s xie mindset towards China, I do not believe he is the real driving force, or the origin of that manifestation. He is not great as a strategic thinker, and his state of mind is too semi-demented to initiate or frame sanctions that we so regularly see against China on the chips front. (Besides denying China access to chip-making technology, it cannot do much elsewhere.) I am more inclined to think that Blinken is the face of the “Deep State” that has manifested in Biden’s administration today. I believe in physiognomy. Blinken’s exudes the worst of xie, especially when draws upon democracy, rules-based order, and all these bullshits when he speaks in public to hosts' audiences. The other key members of Biden’s team – Sullivan, Yellen, Austin, Raimondo, and Tai – are people with little zhi qi. Yellen has chosen to forget the ABCs of national finance and international economics, and Austin is a clueless parrot. Raimondo and Tai are attack dogs, always spoiling for a fight until recently – after the team began to realise that their country is heading nowhere with the war in Ukraine, their sanctions of Russia, the weaponization of SWIFT and the US dollar, the containment of China, and the loss of respect of the US by many leaders all over the world.

Instead of adopting a mindset that will cultivate zheng qi to solve its internal problems – gun violence, drug abuse, Democrat-Republican divide, racial prejudices, homelessness, decaying infrastructure, etc, the “Deep State” behind Biden is harbouring xie qi – sanctioning countries, enterprises and individuals that do their bidding. This is against the order of nature. Even to someone like me who is quite ambivalent about the existence of Heaven, they sure would be consequences, which to some friends are retributions!

To me, these are the three most evil rulers in history: Roman Emperor Nero, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, and German leader Adolf Hitler. Physically, Biden may not be as cruel as them, but in mindset, he is comparable to them on a geopolitical basis. He (or more exactly, Blinken) is xie to the core!

The Chinese philosopher Men-Tze (孟子 372–289 BC) hypothesized that are born “sân” (善, a sense of compassion that extends to an innate behaviour not to do harm unto others”). Clearly, Blinken and his team are not in this category. On the other hand, another philosopher Xun-Tze (荀子 310 – c 238 BC) postulated another theory which is the opposite of Men-Tze’s. It argues that men are by nature “er” (恶 – not exactly “evil;” maybe “bad motive”). His hypothesis was that man was born with inherent desire for profit and sensual pleasure. Fortunately, man possesses intelligence, which makes it possible for him to develop “goodness.” Maybe Biden and his team belong to this category, and the overzealousness to retard China has turned them to be xie.

Small Brains’ Big Talks

The US and its allies have lost much of their credibility, but of course, they are intent to stay relevant. The recent G7 foreign minister’s meeting in Japan is a case in point.

Much of the world has already demonstrated their unhappiness with the US – news headlines stuff like Saudi’s Crown Prince Salman’s snub of Biden in Riyadh, Brazil’s President Lula’s de-dollarization advocation in Beijing, and even France’s President Macron’s “don’t rely too much on America” advice to his fellow European leaders, to the various utterances and actions by leaders in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

 

The communique that was issued after the meeting looks like the product of a group assignment in university. The group is given a topic and the members must produce a joint paper. This communique certainly deserves an A+ grade! These ministers were back in school, and they are acting exactly like university students – every aspect must be covered, and all sorts of idealism (or delusions?) and motherhood beliefs must be included for the assignment to score well.

But these are the foreign ministers of the most developed countries in the world! Who does not know the true “political” mindsets of the countries in this fraternity?

The communique began by underlying G7's strong sense of unity as the world navigates grave threats to the international system. Fair enough, it is a decent motherhood statement.

It covers everything under the sun. But it principally targets two countries: Russia and China – the former, condemnation for its aggression against Ukraine, and the latter, criticism for its behaviour in South China Sea and on Taiwan. Of course, the pariahs in the eyes – North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Iran – were also not spared.

It also offers the usual motherhood pledge to uphold free and open international order based on the rule of law, reiterates the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific and – in the light of ASEAN’s stance on regional geopolitics – reaffirms its unwavering support for ASEAN.

The communique also calls for cooperation and partnership of with every region in the world – the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and Latin and Caribbean America. It also talks about free and open international order, global governance, peace keeping and non-proliferation, economic resilience and economic security, development finance and infrastructure, outer space and cybersecurity, energy security, climate change, environmental degradation, Food security, nutrition, and humanitarian assistance, Global health, Gender Equality and Disaster-risk reduction, and off all things, countering foreign interference including disinformation (when the greatest culprit is the US!)

It is a wish list, and everything has been ticked.

Let me bring out the “China is Bad” part.

“It acknowledges the need to work together with China on global challenges as well as areas of common interest. “It is in the interest of all countries, including China, to ensure transparent, predictable, and fair business environments. Legitimate business activities and interests of foreign companies must be protected from unfair, anti-competitive, and non-market practices, including through illegitimate technology transfer or data disclosure in exchange for market access.

“We remind China of the need to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and abstain from threats, coercion, intimidation, or the use of force… We continue to raise our concerns with China on reported human rights violations and abuses, including in Xinjiang and Tibet. We reiterate our concerns over the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy rights and freedoms, and call on China to act in accordance with its international commitments and legal obligations…”

Would China take all this rubbish? Sure, it hit back.

China straightaway expressed strong opposition and lodged stern representations to Japan, which hosted the function. China says the communique reflects the group's “arrogance, prejudice and deliberate desire to block and contain China”.

There are obvious divergences inside the bloc regarding Taiwan-related rhetoric. especially after Macron called for Europe not getting involved in the Taiwan question. Germany also seeks to engage with China, of course, the diehards like the US and Japan seek decoupling and containment.

Footnote: 

Hayashi Yoshimasa is Japan’s Foreign Minister. His name is written as 林芳正 in kanji (Chinese characters). It is obvious to me that he has strong Chinese heritage; however, nothing about this is mentioned now. When China and Japan were in better terms, he used to head an organisation that promoted good relationship with China. Straits Times even labelled him pro-China when he first joined Japan’s Cabinet. I suppose many have been Nipponized, like what you see in Taiwan.

A Question of Zhì Qì (志气)

US Defense Secretary Llyod Austin has been trying to speak to his Chinese counterpart for months. Both the old and the new minister simply did not bother to return his calls. State Secretary Antony Blinken got a slot from Wang Yi, but only to shoot his own foot with the way he handled the “spy” balloon incident. He does not know when the “invitation” will come. Ditto for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Even Biden himself is also anxiously waiting for an opportunity to speak with President Xi Jinping.

Yet China has welcomed politicians who are no less hostile than them – people like the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The lack of enthusiasm on China’s part is too obvious for everyone to see, yet these Americans are persisting. As far as China is concerned, Biden and his stooges have zero credibility. Why do you want to come? What is the point in talking?

 

You need China, yet you want to patronise China. Where is your brain? (Von der Leyen has certainly learned that!)

 

People like Biden and these four clowns of his fit a term my late mother often used to admonish me when I was young: zhì qì, or the lack of it. (Being the youngest boy in my family, I tended to throw tantrums at my older siblings if they ignored me. My mother would always throw this stern line at me: Yu Bok (my nick name), have some zhì qì!)

 

Zhì qì is 志气 in Chinese, which can be loosely defined as backbone, resolve, courage or ambition. But Mother meant more. She was pointing out a certain character flaw in me – the lack of strength to own up to mistakes and conduct oneself with pride and dignity.

 

And because of them, the United States as a whole has also been reduced to a nation that is collectively devoid of zhì qì. (I argued in a forum that the US is now not a nation in the strictest definition of the word; rather, it is now a mere country. Remember QAnon’s January 16 attack on Capitol Hill? More about the topic another time!)

 

Not too long ago, America was a haven many had aspired to live in and bring up your next generation – great universities, friendly neighbourhoods, smart leaders, and what-have-you.

 

The US prestige has taken a deep dive during the last couple of months. First, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Salman openly snubbed Biden. Then, France’s Emanuel Macron is openly urging European leaders to grow a bit of their backbone, and now Brazilian President Lula da Silva is telling all and sundry to ditch the US dollar.

 

What happened?

 

You can blame everything on Biden.

 

But there is really more to it. Let’s backtrack a little to November 2015, when America was going to the polls to elect a new President. The choice was between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

 

Trump won. The writing was on the wall: If a country could elect someone like Donald Trump as its President, then it must already be – as a nation – in a state of near-intellectual bankruptcy. This was certainly true in November 2015, and it has deteriorated further since then. (Of course, not every American was in that state, but the majority certainly was since the result of a presidential election such as the US’s represents the wishes of this majority. However, I am not implying Clinton was a better choice, rather, I was talking about the “state” of the nation the Americans were in then!)

 

The US had a chance to rehabilitate or rejuvenate themselves in 2019, but the Democrats chose to pick a half-demented candidate, even though they have better options, and Biden went on to become the new President.

Instead of focusing on the issues faced by its people internally, Biden wants to act like an international statesman. But he simply does not have the make of one!

 

Few could imagine, under Biden, America’s prestige could go down the drain so precipitously – all within a matter of months!

 

Since the beginning of this year, many leaders have visited China; but they did so at the invitation of China – besides Macron and Lula, they also welcomed Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

 

These leaders understand the value and the strategic-ness of maintaining good relations with China. Of course, you also have political midgets from time to time – like Marcos Jr who suddenly realised that his balls were actually not free to go with him and who had to do an 180⁰ turn soon after returning to the Philippines. There will always be many “show-me-the-money” types – especially leaders from some of the Pacific Islands, Latin America, and Africa. (I suspect the head of WHO – who is still accusing China of not cooperating on COVID-19 origin tracing – might also have been compromised by the Deep State.)  

 

When has the majority of America collectively lost its zhì qì?

 

Let’s go back a little further.

 

McCarthyism was a byproduct of the Korean War. The paranoia then was about the Yellow Peril. Mao Zedong’s China looked Stalinist and sinister. (So did many Chinese, thanks to Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward Campaigns. Fortunately, China had Zhou Enlai to maintain some form of sanity in the country.) After Richard Nixon’s 1972 China visit, sentiments in American began to change.

 

And thanks to China’s “blue ants,” consumer goods became very affordable in America. Nobody complained.

 

Fast track to November 2017, when Trump paid a state visit to China.

 

The emperor was lavishly received. Trump had expected to see a China that was still struggling to catch up with the world – crowded cities, bad pollution, clueless workers – but what he saw totally jolted him from his wet dreams. He lost no time in declaring a trade war on China.

 

Biden and his team, especially Yellen, knew the trade war was bad for America. But within months of his ascendency, his team realised that China’s economic progress was unstoppable. Their envy led them to initiate a new crusade to stop China at all costs.

 

With the might of their media, America went overdrive to demonize China and the results are bearing fruits.

 

According to the latest Pew research, as much as 82% of America does not view China favourably. (The figure was only 35% in 2005)

 

Even though it had done a lot of harm all over the world – assassinating leaders and toppling governments that were not to their liking – the US was seen as the beacon of democracy, thanks to Hollywood and the lack of social media availability then. (Back then, didn’t we burst into huge applause when John Wayne was riding triumphantly in to thrash the “Red Indians”? Didn’t we believe the US was our ultimate defenders against Soviet and Chinese Communism?)

 

Even as recent as September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center in New York was brought down by the Al Qaeda terrorists, sympathy of the world was very much with the Americans. When George Bush decided to invade Afghanistan because it refused to hand over the Mullah Omar, few objected. Many of us even cheered.

 

2009 was a watershed year in the US; it was an election year.

 

George Bush had wasted the goodwill that he had won after America’s swift invasion of Afghanistan. He went on to destroy Saddam Hussein on the grounds that the latter was building weapons of mass destruction, when most of the world knew that Iraq had none. Even his hitherto greatly admired Collin Powell was forced to tell a big lie in the United Nations. Americans soon got tired of Bush and his Neo-Conservative hawks like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz.

 

Good sense seemed to have returned to America when Americans went to the poll that year.

 

Barack Obama became the 44th president of the US. He was the first Black to hold that office. Beating Mitt Romney, he was sworn in for a second term in 2013.

 

During his eight years in office, Obama negotiated a decent nuclear agreement with Iran and normalized relations with Cuban. He also scaled down America’s forces in Afghanistan. (He could not totally withdraw, for his hands were tied by the “Deep State,” I suppose.) Nonetheless, Obama did manage to restore US’s reputation and prestige somewhat, and its economy was also healthy under his watch.

 

Obama must also be the most intellectual President America has ever produced, but he is Black, and was sabotaged left, right and centre by the Republicans. But the “Deep State” was too formidable for him to change things. American politicians’ intellectual paradigm began to shift. They became increasingly delusional, self-centred, ostrich-like, arrogant, and what-have-you.

 

The nation’s collective intellectuality also began to take a deep dive. Showmanship rather than delivery credentials became the pick. Donald Trump got voted in. The tide enabled the Republicans to go on to control of both houses of the Congress.

 

Trump must be intellectually one of the most deficient Presidents in America’s history. Nonetheless, his non-conformist personality appealed (and still is appealing) greatly to the increasingly ignorant yet chauvinistic lot there, even though the decline of the country was very obvious for all to experience.

 

But Trump is a zero-sum businessman by nature, not a strategist or a good manager by any measure. (He was totally clueless on how to contain the coronavirus pandemic, except to keep pointing his finger in the air and shouting “China, China, China!”) Leaders joked behind his back in functions. But being a delusional man, he thought he was all popular – a classic example of Andersen’s emperor not knowing he had no clothes on fable. But he was not as vengeful or deadly as his successor. Trump loved bargaining; and China played along.

 

Entered Biden in 2021, which gave China a false dawn. China soon learned about this reality – during the Alaska meet between Yang Jiechi/Wang Yi and Blinken/Sullivan. The scar that Yang has inflicted on Blinken during the Alaska encounter must also have made Blinken a Sinophobe-extraordinaire. Their mission: to hold back China technologically at all costs. Never mind if this hurts them economically and geopolitically.

 

Fortunately, unfortunately…

Fortunately, the key people in Biden’s team are very weak. Biden himself does not know much about economics, let alone international economics. Blinken has few grey matters in his brain. (He keeps preaching his rules based world order, but has he ever defined it coherently?) Yellen is wearing her academic halo but in reality, she has become a Bidenomics apologist. Austin is a big potato and Raimondo is shallow, yet arrogant. The US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, must be playing his smartphone 24-7. (What is there for him to do there?)  And where is Katherine Tai? And each time Harris opens her mouth, she transforms herself into a 5-year-old forever-giggling kid.

 

Fortunately, the US is in bad shape. The political and race divide is deep, except for the common enemy, i.e., China, that their politicians and media have helped to create in their mind. Its economy is perilous, its gun violence is unstoppable, its homelessness is hopeless, and its infrastructure is Third World. Yet it is sending billions to Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia, instigating Tsai Ing-wen to raise cross-Straits tensions, and working with midgets like Marcos Jr to stage naval exercises to provoke China. The US is always talking about national security, yet a 21-year-old air national guardsman could leak highly classified defence documents with little efforts? Whose head should roll? Austin’s, of course!

 

Fortunately, the war in Ukraine has wakened the world of the danger of the America today. The weaponization of the US Dollar and SWIFT has led to concerns about the reserves you have in the US and its allies, and the vulnerability of your currency. The US will sanction you if you do not toe its line. Russia is bearing the brunt; the next one can be you. Nonetheless, many Europeans hold strong grudges against Russia, which is understandable, especially those who have lived through the Soviet era. But this time around, Vladimir Putin has been pushed to a corner instead. And you now have a NATO Secretary General who imagines everyone in Russia is a Putin and must be got rid of. Ditto the sentiment of von der Leyen. They fit into Biden’s script perfectly. Biden’s evangelism against totalitarianism was most persuasive, even Singapore decided to throw in their lots with the Ukrainians when the war first broke out. But the truth is emerging; the situation there is not a simple black attacking white case. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is no angel. But it is too late; much destruction has taken place. Unfortunately, many people still choose to be blind to the cause.

 

Fortunately, Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also seen through Biden. He must have realised that Xi was no monster but a leader who is only trying to make Chinese live a better tomorrow. So have several others. Even Honduras defied US wishes and broke off with Taiwan to establish diplomatic ties with China. Australia’s Anthony Albanese also know they cannot put all their eggs in Biden’s basket.

 

Yes, many of Biden’s hoodlums in are still on his beck and call – Japan’s Fumio Kishida, South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, NATO’s Stoltenberg, EU’s von der Leyen, and new recruit Marcos Jr – and China must continue to maintain absolute vigilance against them, but also the weaklings in the Chips and several technology supply chains.  

 

Yes, we still have many Ah Qs and Qin Huis amongst Chinese. (Several days ago, I was watching a video clip featuring a forum in Stanford. A keynote speaker, a China-born assistant professor, began by speech by arguing that Xi’s suppression of high techs in general and Jack Ma in particular was the beginning of America’s loss of love for China. How shallow this academic can be! She must have been thoroughly brainwashed by the Western and pro-West media.) And you also have a President in Taiwan who openly wants the US to “protect” the island! She forgets that she is Yellow!

 

Yes, a lot of hope is being placed on BRICS to change the world’s financial system. But I do have my reservations. The joker in the pack is India. Narendra Modi swings to whatever that is deemed good by him for India, and India alone. He thinks India should always stand taller than China. Hopefully, realities will bring him to his senses.

 

A wounded lion 

The US has degenerated itself into a state that is always in self-denial. It is now a shade of its former self. Biden is evil.

 

I also now use the lack of zhì qì to describe the majorities in the West and the pro-West nations. Few can now stand up to the right cause! And they are voting in more and more intellectually or philosophically deficient leaders. These leaders in turn brought in yes men and women to manage national and foreign affairs. They seem incapable of reflecting, and they go around wielding canes.

 

 

The Emperor has no clothes! The Emperor has no clothes!

A cartoon by Richard Arthur (2018)

 

A child blurts out those words on seeing the emperor in a procession – a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837.

 

Unscrupulousness?

I have always been very diligent about my cars’ maintenance needs. I prefer German cars over Japanese because you only to send them to service workshops once a year.

My C class in Kuala Lumpur is about 7 years old, but it has clocked up less than 60,000 km. After the warranty period was over, I decided to do the yearly maintenance outside. German Motors in Petaling Jaya appears professional, I did the first two there. The last was done a year ago and the mileage recorded was around 53,000 km then. The service job included a full inspection. The car was given a clean bill of health.

Since it was time to do another service, I duly booked another appointment and sent it to the workshop for a routine job yesterday.

What happened next was most unwelcome.

The workshop sent me a WhatsApp message and said that a number of parts needed to be replaced because they had been “badly” damaged. The quotation came to about MYR 16,500, not excluding the service job of about MYR 1,200 which they had already done.

Madness!

I was away for about seven months of last year and the car had clocked up less than 7,000 km since the last job. How could things have fallen apart so badly when it had always been used in city conditions? And there was nothing to indicate that the car was in need of any repair. No unusual sound and the ride was smooth.

I asked German Motors not to proceed. I also told them my opinion. The supervisor had no answer, save to say that he had been informed by his shopfloor colleagues that the replacements were necessary. And he went on to say that he might have misused the term “badly damaged”, which it should be “worn out”.

I thought he lacked credibility and took the car back.