Social Contract



People are using this word profusely, like it's the 'hippest' term used nowadays in our prime media. For God sake, there is no such thing as Social Contract signed between the representatives for each major ethnicity in this beloved country. This fact is agreed by Prof Diraja Ungku Aziz in the recent forum of National Unity (actually, I posed this question to him during the Q&A session).

So, if there is no social contract ever recorded in our history, why people nowadays are arguing on the non-existent 'document'?

I really don't know. But one thing I know - this term was coined and popularized by the mainstream media like the newspaper owned by UMNO and its gang.

What is social contract? I can tell you based on my studies on such philosophy (I took Philosophy 102 in Penn State) and findings about it on the Wikipedia.

Social contract was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762. It is essentially a document which explains how men submit their sovereign autonomy to an institution for it is used to govern a state (a legitimate government must derive its legitimacy from its governed). The writer shared his belief with John Locke (this is one wild man!) that men in their natural state is wild and unruly. Well, public must understand how John Locke led his life in his early age - a rural boy who always wandered in wilderness in order to understand how this man came with this idea. Crazy but it does make sense!

This document indicated the beginning of civil society or political community; just like what we have now in M'sia.

Truly, we NEVER have any recorded historical fact about Malaysia Social Contract. What we do have is an agreement made by early political parties to form Pakatan (or at present it is known as Barisan Nasional). Even that, it cannot be claimed as social contract because it doesn't constitute every citizen in this country. Such should be petitioned in order to do referendum in order to complete the social contract. At least, that is my position on Social Contract.

So, stop bickering or regurgitating the word Social Contract. It does not mean anything here because it is non-existent.

What we need is to come to understanding of the need of each ethnic or social class. Whatever right we want to create here must be derived from the situation and it is impartial to any ethnicity. Economic assistance must be delivered to the affected people, regardless his skin color or his creed.

Malaysia is at her awakening moment. Malaysia is at her finest hour and really, the way I see it, we are at the dawn of a bright future for everyone. Let's fight for our right to have responsible government, an effective leadership and a fair and just executive body!