Respecting each other and leaders

I support a sports team in the US that is off to a horrible start. They have a 3-2 record on the year (gasp!) and on a website they are calling for all the managers to be fired immediately. It embarrasses me.

Why has all respect been lost for leadership in the West? Why is it OK to gripe and complain if all your needs are not immediately met?

Of course this condition exists the world over, even here in Malaysia, but I find it is much less. What a breath of fresh air!

In the West we have gone away from respecting teachers, police, government officials and instead we are usually taught to challenge and even disobey them. The teachers don’t have all the answers. The police break laws themselves. And on and on. Honestly, it leads to a life of emptiness. No one can be fully trusted and there must be someone better to do the job of ______________ (fill in the name of the president, teacher, official, head coach you are mad at). No one is ever satisfied and no one can ever be satisfied with this kind of outlook and attitude in life.

Ok, I will admit the need for whistleblowers and constructive criticism but that isn’t the problem. We have plenty of those.

I enjoy the Malaysian attitude. Most people respect teachers, police officers and government officials. When people discover I am a teacher, they often say, “What a noble profession!”

These positions that I have talked about are the leadership positions within our society. Malaysians tend to accept the fact that no one can do a perfect job and are generally supportive. When the former prime minister (Tun Dr. Mahathir) recently lashed out against his successor (Abdullah Badawi) I felt the public’s reaction was one of mild embarrassment for their former head of state. It was ok to think those things or say criticisms quietly in the corner kedai kopi but don’t splash it across the front page of the newspaper.

In the US, however, President Bush and former President Clinton are engaged in a war of words about who was more negligent and allowed September 11 to happen. Does it embarrass Americans that this is happening? I would like to say YES! but I am afraid most are more concerned that the guy they support is shown to the least negligent.

Can’t we respect people anymore?