I smell arrogance, dear PM

COMMENT | Recently, at this year’s Umno general assembly, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak mocked how Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng almost teared up upon requesting assistance from the federal government during the flood crisis in Penang last November.

He spoke of how incapable the state government was in handling the crisis, so much so that they needed a hand from Umno.

Najib’s speech reminded me of something my ustazah (female Islamic teacher) back at school used to teach us.

You see, when I was in primary school, Ustazah Hasnah used to teach us during agama classes about the inhabitants of heaven and hell.

She used to tell us that heaven is a place for those who do good deeds.

According to her, females are lucky because Allah has blessed women with so many opportunities to do good deeds – obeying parents, being loyal to husbands, giving birth, nurturing children, caring for the family and playing an important role in the development of a society.

At the same time, Ustazah Hasnah said that although women can easily reserve a place in heaven through their good deeds, they also may end up being the largest number of inhabitants of hell.

“This is because women have a tendency to remind others of their good deeds. It sort of gives them a sense of pride.

“Being proud of having carried out good deeds is fine, however, when we begin to publicise our deeds to others and feed our ego in the process, it contributes to arrogance. And there is nothing good about arrogance,” I remember her saying...