PUTRAJAYA, February 19, 2018 – The Education Performance and Delivery Unit (PADU) Corporation has identified and invited Sejahtera Leadership Initiative (SLI) in collaboration with Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) to lead and facilitate a Paradigm Shift Dialogue on the Development of Values and Sahsiah (Personality) for teachers and students in schools. As starters, 30 top/senior administrators at the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be selected to review and evaluate the program contents and its case method at a 2-day off-site residential workshop scheduled on March 07-08, 2018.

Dr. Noorliza Haji Zakuan, Executive Director of PADU debriefed the needs of this Dialogue to Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Founding Convener of SLI who is also Chairperson of USIM and Dr. Haji Zulkifly Baharom, CEO of SLI at a meeting in Putrajaya. It was also attended by Encik Mohamad Khairil Faiz Saad, Assistant Director, Counselling Management and Discipline Sector of MOE and Ms. Suemitra Selvaratnam, Manager, System Structure of PADU who is the Program Coordinator. The agenda and contents deliberated in consonant with aspirations of National Education Philosophy.

It was agreed that at the individual level, student at the pre-school to primary till secondary school must understand the purpose of human life in order to live in harmony with other students, teachers and the community. Such consciousness can only emerge in mind that is calm,and compassionate, generous and forgiving, non-violent and peaceful. The goal of life is to move up the evolutionary ladder so that students become better and better human beings. There should be a fine balance between money and prestige, study and leisure, school and family, rest and running around, selfish interest and social interest.

This Sejahtera Leadership intervention is a self-leadership development program. Its purpose is to help students learn more about him/herself so that they can change, grow, and become a balanced leader. Its primary objective is to present some well-developed models that help student re-create or reinvent their leadership approach that can bring better institutional results and greater human satisfaction. Knowing yourself is key to being a balanced leader.

During discussion, Professor Tan Sri Dzulkifli shared fundamental observations, “I seek to blend the best of the east and the west. Management education in the West has basically developed from the business schools of the USA and it therefore bears the imprint of American philosophy and culture. What is believed in the USA is largely corroborated by other Western countries and even those Eastern countries which have modeled their economies and philosophies and education systems on the West. So, instead of talking of the West in a geographical sense, we should speak of the West as representing a particular approach or attitude to life in general. What is the consequence of the Western world-view? It is simply the survival of the fittest. You see the Blue Ocean Strategy has become Blue Ocean Shift on how billion dollar firms built and create new market spaces and identify untapped growth opportunities.

Can such a man have any purpose in life except to try to be the fittest so that he can survive? Can he look at any relationship with the other people in this world, except as competitors who are also trying their hardest to survive? Can he look at any relationship with the world, except to see it as an arena where this battle of survival is fought? Can his business then be anything but competitive? Can he think of any other value in life except his own survival and his own profit? Can he conceive of happiness in anything except egoistic, material terms, where the more money you have the more happy you are?”

In a nutshell, Professor Tan Sri Dzulkifli said, “Now just look at the consequences of the Sejahtera Leadership Model. Here the paradigms are entirely different. The battle of life gets connected and have a clear-cut relationship with three entities based on National Education Philosophy way of thinking. The cosmic consciousness is relationship with other people in the world, our planet environment and holiness of our religion. Everything in the world has feeling, emotion, intelligence, intuition, consciousness. If you slam a door, the door makes a loud protest. Here everything is alive, conscious. We should treat other human beings as brothers and sisters with respect who we love and for whom we care, not as competitors who have to be vanquished and destroyed”.

Prepared by :
Dr. Zulkifly Baharom
CEO Sejahtera Leadership Initiative