Respect must be earned.

I read about a politician who criticised an opposition politician for not showing respect to a one time Prime Minister. Must we respect a man no matter what he said or did just because he was a Prime Minister?

At one time I was taught to do so but then life and the many experiences I derived from it has changed my attitude towards so called big-shots, even those with titles. I now respect a man or woman not for his wealth or title nor the position he or she holds. What is more important is the person I see and know. If the person is good at whatever post he/she holds and show respect for others, I will accordingly show respect for such a person. If not, I would not respect the person no matter what post is held, no matter what titles is attached to the name of the person or how wealthy the individual is.

All this is the result of knowing and experiencing how some wealthy people have no respect for the property of others, how some heads of government departments show no respect for the public, and political people with a good number of titles not respecting people just because it is not the time to fish for votes. Through this school of the human jungle I realised that some people do not deserve any respect from us.

Back to the severe reprimand made by the politician. When I read it, the following questions arose in my mind: Does it mean that a one time Prime Minister can make all kinds of racist remarks to cause further disunity and still expect to be accorded respect by right-thinking citizens? Especially when the man talks and clearly shows that he is more a community leader than a national leader, from hind-sight, we are forced to gradually understand and believe that he was, at least most of the time, looking after just one community's interest all those years. Would anyone expect me to respect such a person anymore?

We no longer live in the dark ages when the leaders are always right and loyalty to leaders is blind. Unlike the days of Hang Tuah when it is either respect the leader or off goes the head, we are supposed to be educated, knowing civilised people. Education and knowledge has help us to differentiate between right and wrong. Of course, there are still those who agrees to everything a leader says no matter what is said is right or wrong, true or not. If my memory serves me right, such folks have cause a good leader to lose his votes to a liar who told the people his opponent was wearing a Christian cross when in actual fact his opponent was just wearing a tribal hat that has something that looked like a cross on it. The poor folks believed the liar and gave him the votes. See?

So, respect must be earned. There just isn't any other way we can respect someone, be it a leader or just someone we know.