Respect the disabled..

In a recent court trial, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption commission (MACC) head of prosecution, Datuk Abdul Razak Musa showed disrespect to lawyer Karpal Singh who is a disabled person by making the insensitive remark, "I can sit down but you cannot stand up."

As a learned man, he should have realised that such a remark would only bring shame upon himself. He was immediately reprimanded by Karpal Singh's son who was also a lawyer. Abdul Razak Musa was cautioned by the judge and it ended with him having to apologise to Karpal Singh. The next day saw the Discriminations Against the Disabled coalition send a memorandum to the MACC, Federal Territories, asking that disciplinary action be taken against Abdul Razak Musa for his disrespectful comments. Eventually, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, for which Abdul Razak Musa was working, had to make a press statement in which the MACC tendered an apology.

Merely memorising facts, passing examinations and securing paper qualification does not indicate or prove that a person is truly educated or cultured. The thinking and attitude makes the man. Everybody can think. All have attitudes. But what kind of thinking and attitude do we have? To merely follow the thinking of others is easy as we just copy the thoughts. However, to know what thoughts are right or wrong, we need knowledge and understanding of other people. Attitude is how we look at things. To have the right attitudes, we need to understand the consequences of our attitudes. Are the consequences of our attitudes healthy and good? Are such consequences what we want? Therefore, ability to think correctly and having the right attitudes towards all matters in life is the indicator of having had a good education. In fact, a good education need not necessarily come with a degree, it could also be obtained through what my most respected teachers (Do you know who they are? If you have been reading my previous postings, then you would have known that they are Napolean Hill, Dale Carnagie and norman Vincent Peale.)called the School of Hard-knocks which is knowledge gained from experience in the real world.

In the real world, we find that disabled people can not only gain our respect for the things they are capable of; some are also such inspiring people and a few on them can be found in this blog. According to me, to respect disabled people is to respect God. We ought to remember that we are all God's creatures. God send us forth into this world for a purpose, a mission and it is up to each individual to discover his/her purpose here.

He created some to teach us respect. Faced with disabled people who can perform even better than abled people, many of us may come to learn to show respect and practise humility. Yes, humility! Some are too proud of their normal achievements. Only when they realise that there are some who can achieve even greater heights despite facing great obstacles; only then can such people realise they should have pride but not that proud, not that arrogant. They may begin to realise that although they are apparently not disabled, they are disabled in unnoticeable ways. I would say that there are those who have a disfunction of the brain. They discover that they need to learn respect or be more open-minded; perhaps change their attitudes which have not been right despite having gone through a university education.

Even those who have brain damage have a role to play. Their presence made those who are downhearted realise how fortunate they really are; that they should count their blessings. We may feel pity and learn to be more compassionate towards our fellow humans. However, although such brain damaged people need help and give opportunities for some to do volunteering work and good deeds, they are usually quite happy because they know not unhappiness. So, they have their importance in this existence. I believe they come with a special purpose. That they are willing to come to fulfill such a purpose, we must show our respect to them.

You see, in my understanding of karma and reincarnation, we come with a purpose into this world. Having decided to come thus to improve our karma, we reincarnate into this world. And when we die we return to God and the next reincarnation.