When a society has lost its moral compass

By Sukhdave Singh | Opinion |

The more I observe societies like Malaysia, the more I am convinced that we have too much of religion but too little of morality and spirituality. That it is considered religiously acceptable by so many to commit public breaches of trust, to steal and to deceive shows that despite the great public display of religion, our society has lost its sense of morality and its bearings about what is right and ethical behavior. We talk about preparing for the hereafter but so many in our society spend their lives accumulating shamefully excessive material wealth, even if it involves unethical and illegal means.

The robbers, psychopaths and scoundrels in our society have shown how willing they are to use religion as a disguise to hide their wrong doings. They have shown how they can use religion to gain and retain power, subduing the masses by promoting unquestioning obedience to religion and consequently to them as elevated representatives of that religion, even though their behaviors and actions break every code of morality and spirituality, or what would normally be considered just decent behavior.

The public has been made obedient and subservient with the use of religion. Religion has given small minds great power over the rest of society simply because we allow these small minded, and largely uneducated, individuals to project themselves as enforcers of religion. Those in power have encouraged this religious intimidation because it serves their own selfish interest. However, this religious monstrosity they have created and imposed on society will one day eat them too.

The civil service has become so riddled with corruption that one cannot escape the conclusion that many have come to see rent-seeking as their birthright. How can so much moral degeneration exist amidst so much public display of religion?

When individuals perform all the religious rituals and yet find nothing wrong with engaging in corrupt practices and other criminal acts, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way these individuals were brought up and with the societies in which they were brought up.

If we want to distinguish the angels from the devils, it seems to me that it is not religion that we should look at but rather towards morality and spirituality. If we want to be better human beings and live in more humane societies, we must once again establish the link of religion to morality and spirituality. We need to stop focusing on rituals and superficial external appearances and behaviors, and start looking within ourselves, at what lies within our soul. We need to shift our attention from the behaviors of others and spend more time examining our own behavior. Let us look at the morality of our own actions.

It is clear that the teaching of religion in our schools has failed to produce people with good character and moral values. Perhaps, it is time to focus on morality and spirituality, irrespective of religion. It can only make us more humane and compassionate in our dealings with fellow humans and all living things. It may even give us leaders who actually care about us. What a nice change that would be.

Sukhdave Singh is a former deputy governor of Central Bank of Malaysia and a former independent director of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The article was published by Sukhdave on his LinkedIn page (link) and is reproduced here with his permission.

* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.

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