Meetings and Power

Having been a civil servant of sorts as an academic in a public institution before my retirement, I have had to attend countless meetings. Now I can recall these meetings with humour but in the past some of these sessions were like torture. Perhaps you may like to ‘attend’ a few here with me? I promise to try to turn ‘torture’ to fun, if I can.

Our monthly meetings in a certain school of learning were mandatory unless you were very ill or had to represent the school at another equally glorious event. We trooped into the meeting room usually laden with a thick green-covered file (agenda, minutes, proposals, appendices and suchlike). Did I go through all of it? I won’t implicate myself here, so shall just say I can’t remember. Some very industrious colleagues did read all, especially those pages which were of concern to them or their ‘rivals’. How else can territorial and personal power be guarded?

Some matters had been settled long before these meetings by quiet lobbying in the individual offices or other nooks and corners. Some issues were top-down policies, so it was a mere rubber stamping, no discussion. A few of us may have found it hard to keep awake at such times and some would have dozed off.  Others kept awake nibbling on the curry puffs or goreng pisang (fried bananas) provided – only two pieces, budget concerns perhaps?

I remember a very dramatic moment at one such meetings. Two colleagues who were from the same school got so angry with each other (I forget over what and it will not interest you, dear reader) that fisticuffs, a physical fight, could have happened. Years of learning may not give some academics self-control. Alas, as Kierkegaard says, “We are human, all too human,” PhD or no PhD. A rather burly colleague and a less stocky colleague who had the body of a gymnast were going to have a go each at each other. We shall never know who would emerge the victor because calmer fellas intervened.

I know a little, very little, about how hard it is to assume any admin head’s role. Long ago, decades ago, I was asked to lead one small section because no one else was available. On pain of punishment, I agreed. I know more about counting the minutes of a clock than taking down minutes, thus my minutes of meetings were convoluted and verbose. Worse, I did not know when and how to be discreet. Certain issues simply should not be recorded in writing. How was I to know? Clearly, reading George Orwell’s 1984 or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World didn’t make me sharper.

All is not lost nor are all meetings dismal sessions. There will always be those brave enough to challenge, interrogate, question heads, deans and suchlike figures. I have fond memories and deep respect for a colleague, now long gone (may he rest in peace) who spoke with conviction and wisdom whenever he questioned whether an issue was right and just. A thin, tall gentleman, he was a man of few words. Yet when he spoke, we listened. But to those in power, he would have been seen as naive, too idealistic for this world of dollars and cents. “We have to think of various aspects, different perspectives. How can he be so absurdly dogmatic?” some dean must have lamented. Compromises may have be applied in The Great Game of managing any outfit, large or small. Nonetheless, that respected colleague still believed firmly that key principles must not be ignored and moral red lines should not be crossed. Was he too demanding?

In Henry IV, Shakespeare says, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” reminding us that heads of kingdoms, companies and governments often have sleepless nights because with power comes huge worries and heavy responsibilities. “We have to consider the greater good,” heads will customarily say, adding that it is what benefits the majority that counts. But how does one weigh out what is of greater or lesser good in a country or even in a small community? It isn’t weighing rambutans or apples. I certainly would have been totally baffled and inept, which is why I would be a disastrous failure in politics. Yet one must be fair and not overly self-righteous. I have known some deans, some heads of various outfits who, while retaining decency and ethics, were excellent at such balancing. A few of them remain my dear friends till today.

We all can play a part in policing the powerful, however small or ineffectual our role may seem. We should speak up at all the kinds of meetings, from the meetings of the management committee of our condo blocks to the most august meetings in the halls of governments. A quote attributed to Edmund Burke warns us that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. I love repeating these words of Jose Rizal: “There can be no dictators if there are no slaves.” If this is too idealistic and unrealistic, I plead guilty to being naive.

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