By En. Dusit Paul; INTAN Wilayah Timur Laut

Evolving Global Society Amidst the joy and jubilation (and to some, trial and sorrow) of celebrating the passing of the last century and welcoming the new millennium, had it ever crossed into our mind that by God’s grace, at least everyone of us are lucky to be alive and able to witness the process of social evolution taking place around us. The profound changes we have witnessed thus far is greatly attributed to, as well as spurred on by human ingenuity in the last century. That indeed had been one great part of our lives. As public servants, how do we see and react to situation like this?

Now, moving on to the new millennium, we public servants are to be an integral art of impending globalise community, where digitised society is going to be the order of the day. It is really amazing how humanity had gone this far in our development of scientific and technological field over the last 100 years, so much so that the last century had been aptly referred to as“century of light’. By virtue of that, the legacy of the 20th century is no doubt, nowhere else more apparent than the implications and changes it has caused and brought to our way of life, everyone of us regardless of who we are, or what professions we undertake, be it public servants working in the comfort of an air-conditioned room or the poor farmers toying in the sweltering heat of his paddy fields.

It doesn’t matter anymore. Technology has enhanced our lives and at the same time, brought us closer together, in the true physical sense. Just take a look at the local context for example. Today we can commute daily between different regions and states in Malaysia including across the vast South China Sea to Sabah and Sarawak and vice versa, that is of course if you have the means. More frequency of contact for us Malaysians mean enhanced national solidarity, a value we have held so dear right form the formative age of Malaysia that it must be preserved at all cost for the nations’ future.

On a wider scale, the unification of the earth’s diverse and heterogeneous inhabitants across continents is by now no more a remote possibility, utopian visions or a dream. Neither it is a matter of choice.

Anywhere in the world today, we see forces of political, social and economic integration taking place. Socially, we are talking about common destiny of the human race. Events like upheavals which take place in a particular nation state and beyond the control of existing institutions have profound and spill over effects on others, positive or negative.

The forces of globalisation too have forced nation state, Malaysia no exception to assess our economic strength and weaknesses. Remember the regional currency crisis of the late 1990’s? If not because of specific central measures initiated by the government, we would still be carrying that hangover to the next millennium.

Politically we are tearing down and demolishing geopolitical boundaries, removing barricades and barriers that in the past are clear symbols of human division and a hindrance to mobility. Recall what happened in Germany and the once mighty and fearless Soviet Union? Unification is not a remote possibility. Nearer home, observe how archrivals China/Taiwan and the two still technically at war countries North/South Korea are initiating concrete move towards rapprochement. Whether it is in politic, economic, or social field, the trend that we are certainly leaning towards to is that of an ever increasing, interdependence and integration of the human race into one global community.

Largely because of the tumultuous period that we have undergone, characterised by upheavals, revolutions and natural disasters that has caused suffering and death to millions, the last century also witnesses more effort by nations to forge a world political system that can secure the possibility of lasting peace, justice and prosperity for all. In the regional context, thus Malaysia is n active member of various grouping such as ASEAN, APEC, AFTA, besides being a strong proponent of the yet to be realised, East Asian Economic Caucus. Anywhere else too there are such grouping of nation states, the more famous one being the 214 member nations, European Union, with its more advanced economy and its single currency the Euro Dollar.