At the time of writing, we have quite some challenging issues facing the world.
This is the best of time, this is the worst of time.
A Tale of Western Model, Chinese Model, and Islamic Model
When it comes to social, economic, and environmental related development, we can roughly group it into 3 major movements:
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) lead by United Nations (UN)
- One Belt One Road initiatives lead by Chinese government (China)
- Islamic community movement
While the one lead by UN and China are pretty clear on the lead organization, direction and strategies, we have yet to see a clear positioning and strategic planning under the grouping of Islamic based movement, though things are happening on silos basis, at the time of writing (around 2020).
A Look At South East Asia
Malaysia, given its strategic location out of the Ring of Fire, with blessings of no big natural disaster such as earthquakes, and a rich cultural heritage with abundance natural resources, seems to be sitting on a goldmine.
If we were to enlarge the scope around the region, Nusantara, and even the whole South East Asia is one big continent full of opportunities with its vibrant population and multi-ethnic culture.
Will this region seamlessly adapt to all or a combination of the Western, Chinese and Islamic model, or to be molded into any single model, or any other possible outcomes, only time will tell.
Yet, we have to better prepare ourselves to face whatever is coming, and be wise enough to make the best out of every situation we could be dealing with.
The Future
The new future will definitely not only about the digitization or the digital world by itself.
How well are we going to embrace the unknown future as we progress towards a sustainable world? Are we?
Will some day in the future when our children look back and realize that what was quoted in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities seems to be best describe this era of ours?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
