masterwordsmith-unplugged

The battle seems to be over. It is not. Soldiers are trudging home wearily while commanders are wondering where they went wrong. The other side is feasting, feting and celebrating gloriously while many are stunned, depressed and some even raging. With such a myriad of emotions raging before us, it is easy to be swept away by disappointment and to slip into negativism, despondency, disillusionment or bitterness. We cannot afford that. Not at this point. Pity parties should not last too long. We may rant, scream, cry tears but at the end of the day, we have to take stock of the situation and abandon all notion of hopelessness. Without sounding didactic, I believe that bad times and failure will and can offset growth in many unexpected ways.

There are many lessons that we can learn from the Hulu Selangor by-election in terms of strategy, public relations campaign, organizational set up, psychological warfare, attitude, funding and many other aspects. Enough has been said in many websites and I will not bore you by repeating any one of them. Besides, I was not there at Hulu Selangor and as such, do not feel 'qualified' to write a post-mortem on it although I know there are many lessons to be learnt from the pitfalls of public relations and campaign strategy used.

I just want to infuse hope into each one of us - that we have to be united to soldier on in our cause and dream for a better nation. Finger-pointing and name-calling or mud-slinging all do nothing but divide us further. Let us learn to reach out to one another, respect each other even when the going is tough, even when the response may not be positive. Change has to begin with us and a cause cannot be achieved when the soldiers are divided. So let us arise with renewed vigor, vision and pray that our leaders will truly see their failings and abandon ways which cannot work. They have to move with the times and to earnestly seek new and effective ways to engage the rakyat for support. They have to - for Malaysia, for you, me, all of us.

CLICK HERE for a beautiful set of slides on lessons which we can learn from the butterfly.

Sometimes, struggles and disappointments are exactly what we need in our lives. Without struggles, we would never appreciate what we have. Without failure, we would never have found the strength and wisdom from seeing the painful truth of our weaknesses and moving forward to growth and victory. The butterfly went through all the struggle before it could fly. I guess we all have to as well, including Pakatan Rakyat. There are many positive points which we can see in this by-election campaign for which we should be thankful and for the negative points which should teach us many precious lessons. I believe the new day will come. We shall overcome and we will soldier on....

Thanks to Angela who sent me this set of slides earlier this morning. Take heart, Malaysians....all is not lost. A loss in a battle need not be a loss depending on the perspective that we take. Let's look at it positively and aim for the bigger challenge and stride forward for the future. We have to - for Malaysia.

Take care and do leave a comment to share your thoughts and views. Thanks. As always, have a nice day!