I am scheduling an appointment with YB Hannah Yeoh next week to talk about her views on social responsibility and making a difference. She is a really busy person and I am extremly grateful for this interview.
I’ll post the transcript here on the blog.
The reason I am doing this is firstly for myself.
I am an a typical Malaysian, which means I am an armchair critic. So, I complain and bicker about problems when they happen, but I don’t do anything much about it.
I decided to change.
But like most Malaysians, change can mean a million and one things, so to cut the process, I decided to find out exactly how change can take place through an insignificant person such as myself.
Now, the second reason why I am doing this is for you, the reader.
By putting myself in the spot, I will have no excuse but to put into practice any lessons I have learnt from the interview. But I am hoping to convert my fellow armchair critics.
I’m not a political blogger. I write on careers, living, and making a difference. And I am doing this because I feel that understanding how politics works can greatly affect the quality of people’s lives.
I have told a few friends and family members about this – in total count, about 30. Only about 6 people have gotten back to me about an opinion, a question, or a remark. The response was either completely silent, or completely vocal.
Does this mean that Malaysians are clearly on two sides of a camp?
Anyway, those who did get back to me were mostly concerned the well-being of citizens in this country. They didn’t talk about the big Anwar case that’s being publicized right now, nor the case about the Mongolian girl’s murder. But I can’t speak for everyone else. Maybe other people worry about such things.
Some of the questions sent to me were about racial polarization in schools, transparency, how effective working through our representatives would be, about cleanliness and recycling and the environment, about checks and balances, and about getting involved.
I’ll mostly ask Hannah about what her job looks like, what people think about her and her job, how things have changed and what’s the best way to make a difference.
This is by far the best way to find out where to start! It is a better way to make change happen, not by assessing all the facts to the minute detail, but to get our hands dirty while fixing problems, and learning as we go along.
I already wrote a post about getting rid of your sofa. But really, it’s about getting rid of our old thinking.
Let’s get our hands dirty. Let’s solve problems that are worth solving – whether it is about education, corruption, the environment, etc… and not just talk about it.
Stay tuned for the interview.
Update: It’s done – check out the interview here.
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[...] the Hannah Yeoh interview I promised. It summarizes some assumptions I made about making a difference in [...]