PERSPECTIVE: This is a section for "Guest Post". Guest write on any subject or issue they choose. And what they write is posted as received. Today's guest is LIM Yu Book.
The Unyielding Spirits of Nelson Mandela and Ren Zhengfei
Something we Malaysians need to emulate…
I woke up this morning to see a WhatsApp message from Hussein. He asks if I can write an article that might interest Malaysians in his portal. Some may know that I blog often, but much of what I have written is on geopolitics, especially about the United States’s paranoia against China. I have even released two books on the subject: “China’s Arduous Journey to Earn Its Place - From Mr Q to President Xi Jinping”, and more recently “Knowing Your Roots - In the Wake of the New Xiong-Nus at China’s Gate”.
However, I have hardly written anything substantive about the affairs in Malaysia, because of a simple reason: The 3Rs (Race, Religion and Royalty) are too sensitive for me to handle.
But I can’t refuse Hussein’s invitation. I do not quite agree with many of the things he has written, however, I salute his guts and feel obliged to accept.
There are many greats whom as a society we can emulate. However, these two names came immediately to my mind when I think about Malaysia: Nelson Mandela and Ren Zhengfei.
Most Malaysians who were adults during the 1980s/1990s would remember Mandela, the South Arican leader who was imprisoned for 27 years by the all-White apartheid government. Upon his release by Frederick de Klerk in 1990, he went on to become the President of South Africa in 1994. He relinquished the position in 1999. Despite having suffered the long incarceration, Mandela dismantled the legacy of apartheid not by witch-hunting the colonial masters but with a spirit of racial reconciliation. Economically, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty and expand health services.
He published his autobiography – Long Walk to Freedom – in 1994, which is an extraordinary story of his life.
Unfortunately, his successors, starting with Thabo Mbeki, were less enlightened. Some morphed into the type of leaders whom we love to stereotype as “African leaders”. Be that as it may, South Africa remains a highly regarded country in the world today.
The second name is Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei. Everybody knows what has happened to Huawei in the recent years. Ren founded it in 1987. By 2019, it was already a world giant in technology, especially in 5G technology.
Ren’s daughter Meng Wenzhou was detained at Vancouver International Airport upon her arrival on December 1, 2018. She was placed under house arrest and made to wear an electronic shackle on one of her upper ankles. She was not released until September 2021.
The US was determined to kill Huawei. Lesser mortals would have yielded. But not Ren.
Huawei bid its time. On August 29, 2023, it shook the world. Right when Gina Raimondo was visiting China, Huawei released its 60 MatePro smartphone; it was done without much fanfare, but the message is clear. Huawei has returned. I wrote a piece in my blog; I called that day the Day of Breakthrough (yubooklimblogspot.com).
Ren holds less than 1% of Huawei. I consider Ren a sage entrepreneur. How many of our entrepreneurs are in that mould?
LIM Yu-Book is a Malaysian who also lives in Australia from time to time. He is retired but blogs often on geopolitics. He used to head a Singapore think tank and was Executive Chairman of IMC Plantations before that.
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