By PETER SCHIER 

RECENTLY, the well-known US social psychologist Prof Dr Robert
Levine concluded a six-year-long international study on the
level of friendliness and willingness of people living in 23
cities around the globe to help people in need.

Kuala Lumpur ended up at the very last place in the rating, even
ranking behind New York, which came second last. The well-to-do
people of Singapore, known to be all but soft-hearted, came in
third last.

Topping the list of helpfulness are the people of Rio de Janeiro
(Brazil), a crowded mega-city with a high percentage of people
living in poverty and large slums unknown in Kuala Lumpur and
elsewhere in Malaysia. Yet, the people of Rio de Janeiro were
found to be much more friendly and helpful than those in Kuala
Lumpur.

Even more surprising, the people of Lilongwe, the small capital
of the African state of Malawi, which is one of the poorest
countries in the world, came in third after San José (Costa
Rica) and in front of slum-ridden Calcutta (India) and the
European cities of Vienna, Madrid and Copenhagen.

Obviously, the practice of good common moral values like
kindness, compassion, honesty, and justice, etc is not dependent
on economic or technological development and on the standard of
living.

There can be no doubt that Kuala Lumpur and the whole of
Malaysia have, during the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk
Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, undergone an outstanding economic,
infrastructure and technological development.

However, it seems that during the process of development, a
number of good traditional moral values and ethical standards
have been partly lost. Criminality seems to be on the rise,
whereas law enforcement appears to be getting weaker.

Dishonesty and corruption seem to be spreading whereas
transparency and accountability appear to be in danger of
becoming the exception rather than the rule.

Even in the spiritual field a growing tendency towards false
piety and pure formalism without sticking to the core principles
and values can be observed. As common values have not been
stressed enough in the education system, relations between the
different religious and ethnic groups leave much to be desired.

Last but not least, the pollution of the natural environment has
reached a stage where the health of a growing number of people
is directly threatened by very poor water or/and air quality.

In fact, most of these phenomena in the development process of
capitalism or market economy are not new. All materially and
technologically developed countries have faced and are still
facing a more or less serious problem of degradation of moral
values. All of us, Asians, Europeans, Africans, Americans etc,
are facing it.

The basic reasons for the degradation of moral values in many
economically and technologically developed countries are:

- lack of social, ecological and ethical restrictions on the
market economy system,

- lack of political leaders who practise what they preach about
the social, ecological and ethical responsibilities of public
and corporate leaders, and

- lack of good moral education at home and in the kindergartens,
schools, colleges and universities, especially the lack of
education in the common core values we all share: peace,
freedom, justice, respect for life and nature, kindness,
friendship, love, compassion, honesty, integrity,
accountability, etc.

If we let the so-called market forces develop in an unbridled
way, the only rule of the market would be excessive
profiteering. Then, everything including humans would be
sacrificed on the altar of the "free market" and "development".
This is no exaggeration.

In fact, the trade in minor virgins and boys is already a
gruesome reality in a number of countries as is the illegal
trade in transplants for the sheer sake of profit.

Because of our belief in the necessity of good morals and ethics
based on a faith in a Supreme Divine Being responsible for the
existence and fate of the Universe, the
Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (KAF) has been funding the Malaysian
Institute of Managements (MIM) Tun Razak Youth Leadership
Awards (TRYLA) programme and the Tun Hussein Onn Renewal Awards
(THORA) programme for mid-career people.

Both programmes are strongly value-oriented so that future and
present leaders should learn that there is more to strive for
than just profit, power and pleasure.

It is especially important to educate everyone, especially
future leaders, in the common values which all the different
civilisations and faiths share. These common moral standards
constitute a humane ethic, or, the ethic of humanity. In view of
the process of globalisation, this ethic of humanity has been
termed by the famous Swiss theologian Hans K'ng as global
ethic.

Basic contents of global ethic

In fact, the global ethic can be summarised in one precept:
“Treat others as you would like to be treated” or “Do not treat
others as you would not like to be treated”. That is the
so-called GOLDEN RULE, which is found in the scriptures of all
major faiths.

It is the fundamental ethical standard on earth. It can be
characterised as the basic law of human coexistence. All other
precepts derive from this mother of ethics.

And, there are a number of behaviours regarded by all faiths as
sinful. Corruption, for example, is viewed as being equivalent
to stealing other people’s money and lying to the public. No
world religion, no faith and no philosophical belief system
allows stealing and lying.

Let us all, especially the leaders, become more responsible for
the future and contribute to reduce these social sins in our
societies.

Peter Schier is representative to Malaysia of
Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (KAF), a German foundation and a
partner of MIM for more than 20 years now in the conduct of
community-centred programmes for Malaysians like TRYLA and
THORA. For more information, call MIM Customer Service at
03-21654611, e-mail enquiries@mim.edu or visit www.mim.edu.