Political leaders

https://odb.org/2024/04/02/psalm-72-leaders

Public office politics is inherently difficult as there are many often competing interests to meet and balance at the highest levels. On the one hand, they can’t meet everyone’s demands and, on the other hand, some needs are more urgent than others. It’s a question of priorities, and yet it’s also a question of support. Political personalities and parties need to take care of the needs of their constituents in order to remain in power, their own voting area as well as the power base of their party. In Malaysia, political power is delienated along racial, religious, rural-urban, and East-West Malaysia territorial lines. It is both simple and complex as voters in any group are not necessarily homogeneous. Throw self interests and self enrichment into the mix, and you’ll have a morally reprehensible cauldron of soups.

We may want to criticise, but as believers, we are also part of the system. As much as we identify ourselves as Christians, true believers are hardly a powerful bloc in any jurisdiction. I believe even in the bible belt of the United States of America. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 72, we want a fair and just system where the poor and underprivileged will not be marginalised and the righteous prosper. Unfortunately, public office is sick, likely everywhere in the world.

What we can probably do as an individual believer of Christ is to do our part in the voting process and pray for our leaders that doing the right thing is among their top priorities. They may not be able to do so every single time due to competing interests, but at least they try to. We pray that they do not put self interests at the top of everything they do as that can not be a good thing. The government paying inflated prices will surely contribute to inflation, although the public sector spending is catalyst to economic growth. Inefficient use of resources will lead to waste, especially of hard-earned taxpayers’ monies. It’s already tough to earn a living nowadays, and we still need to pay income and consumption taxes and how disheartening it is if the taxes we pay are abused and misused!

My view is that ultimately, we focus our eyes on Jesus. We give to Caesar what’s due to Caesar, rightfully or otherwise, and fix our eyes on Christ. Ultimately, we are passing through to a better place in eternity. In the meantime, we pray for our rulers and leaders that they will do good for the people at large, if not all the time, at least most of the time!