Benchmarking, penanda aras, dan banyak lagi istilah yang digunakan bagi menandakan kejayaan atau kegemilangan satu satu bangsa. Piramid merupakan aras perdana kepada zaman firaun di Mesir. Bagi Dr Mahathir, Putrajaya dan Menara Kuala Lumpur merupakan aras perdana pemerintahan Dr Mahathir. Bagi saya ada persoalan yang perlu diselesaikan di sini. Aras perdana itu adakah merupakan hak individu atau merupakan hak seseorang individu? Firaun menjadikan piramid itu sebagai aras perdana setiap firaun yang memerintah, bukan rakyat. Malah rakyat dikerah bagi memastikan aras perdana individu ini tersergam hingga ke hari ini. Adakah ini hasilan riak dan takabur sesorang itu?Dilihat dari satu sudut pula, aras perdana juga membawa makna 'the ultimate ability of a person or a nation.' It was a positive thing to see a creativity of a person is being transferred to a collective energy that results in the building of a pyramid. In this case the leader holds the bold mission, that is the aras perdana, and it is the people who would be channelling the energy and knowledge to construct what later on becomes the pride of the nation. If it is for the good of the nation then the bold mission is very much welcome. But what can be said in the building of Taj Mahal and the like? No doubt it is a collective work, but the person who holds the aras perdana for the construction of Taj Mahal can be be both bold and very cruel. Is that what life is all about? Life is a journey of two types of leadership that ultimately emerged into one. It begins with mission or dreams of a person that eventually finds himeslef or herself in a powerful power position and that leads to the aras perdana I have been talking about. It does not really matter whether the dream is bad or evil. If it remains at that invidual level, it can be construed as an ability that is just local in nature and surrounded by small number of followers and friends in terms of family, workers, products, and company.Question is, can that local energy accumulate itself into a strength like waves of tsunami? Then what shall we called it? Aras perdana or aras bencana?
