[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
There are many ways
to categorise people, and how you categorise really depends on what you want to
discuss.
In this book, I am going to discuss the problems we faced in this World today, so I am going to use 2 attributes to categorise people: Intelligence & Humbleness.
For simplicity, Intelligence can be either
smart or not smart; Humbleness can be either the preference of being known or the
preference to stay unknown.
So this gives us 4 types of people:
* Type 1 – Smart and Want to be
Known
* Type 2 – Smart but Do Not Want
to be Known
* Type 3 – Not Smart and Do Not
Want to be Known
* Type 4 – Not Smart but Want to
be Known as Smart
To really understand why people do what
they did, and to better understand the list of problems that we had today, we
need to understand the 4 types of people in this World.
These are the people who are smart and know
that they are. Therefore, they felt that if their talents are not put to good
use, it will be a big waste and they will die with regrets.
These people are very eager to make full
use of their talents and desperately want to leave a name for themselves.
However, in doing so, they could end up being ruthless.
An extreme case of Type 1 person is Cao Cao[i]
(曹操). When he was young, a famous character evaluator once described
him as:
清平之奸贼，乱世之英雄
Meaning: "A treacherous villain in times
of peace and a hero in times of chaos."
Too bad, as the saying goes:
一山不能藏二虎
Literally: "One Mountain cannot host Two
Tigers."
If there are more than one Type 1 persons
at the same time and at the same place, there will be bloodshed.
Looking back at the history of Singapore, are
there any events that you can relate to the above?
Generally, this type of people is much
smarter than Type 1, and they preferred to keep a low profile. They would
rather spend time enjoying the peace and tranquillity than to spend it in
politics and meaningless fights.
An example of Type 2 person is Zhuge Liang[ii]
(诸葛亮), nickname: "Sleeping Dragon" (卧龙). If not for the
turmoil during his time, we would not have heard of him today.
Type 2 persons can make huge
accomplishments and leave a very good name for themselves, but only if the
circumstances are really bad.
You can never apprehend their thoughts and
capabilities. These are the people who can help to build an empire, yet will
not end up as a threat to Type 1 persons – A highly sought after talent, but
you must be able to inculcate the values and purposes of his role and
contribution in order for him to support you.
These are the vast majority of people. They
know they are average and contented being so. They typically do not have great
achievements, but are contented being who they are. These people are what we
termed as "commoners".
Type 3 persons can easily be found
everywhere.
These are the people, who thought that they
are smart, but in fact, average or even below average.
These people typically
fight to lead in anything and others had to come and clean up their shits. These
are what we termed as "trouble makers".
Given their urge to be in leadership
positions, as you might already expect, they are mostly concentrated in the
political landscape. Therefore, Type 4 persons are also commonly known as
"politicians".
To identify them, simply throw a stone into
the parliament, it is more likely that you will hit one than not.
Type 4 people are the major cause of
problems in today's World. They often came up with a lot of 'tips and tricks'
that they felt was so ingenious, but actually caused much bigger problems for
everyone.
If you think that you are Type 1 person,
well, with absolute certainty, you are one of the Type 4 persons that had given
us so much trouble. Please, we beg you, could you help us by not trying to do
so much?
If you think that you are Type 2 person,
well, you are just a happy Type 3 person. Anyway, being a Type 3 person is also
great, in fact, who would want to be a Type 2 when you can already enjoy the
peace and tranquillity of Type 2?
If you think that you are Type 3 person.
Yes, you are. Congratulation to you as you are a typical Type 3 person –
contended being who you are. But remember, continue to stay low and you can
still enjoy life to the max. However, once you become too eager, you could drop
into Type 4.
Well, if you think you are Type 4 person,
don't despair. At least you are much better than those Type 4 persons who think
that they are Type 1. The first step in solving problem is to identity the
problem, which you just did. Next, you just need to be more humble. Once you achieved
that, you can easily move up the scale.
In case you are wondering what type Calvin Cheng belongs to, well, he is a typical Type 4. Do you remember the recent comments he made about buying more MRT to solve the reliability issues and all the other issues are bread-and-butter?
What he was trying to do, apart from PLP, was trying to show to the World how 'SMART' he is that he can "see and summarise" all the problems into those. Imagine if the government is as stupid as him thinking it is so, then we will continue to have huge problems, thus the need for me to rebut him on his silliness.
Of course, he belongs to the more stupid Type 4, getting himself into more shit such as exposing his earlier price-fixing scandal. Interestingly, it is 'no-big-deal' for him and that leads us to ponder over the selection criteria of NMP.
[i] Cao Cao was a warlord and one of
the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period of China History.
[ii] Zhuge Liang was a famous statesman
and military strategist during the Three Kingdoms period, and is a classic
example of famous people from ancient China. He was known for his wisdom and
his strategies in winning battles.
[This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
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