Wisdom is evidenced when correcting mistakes; unsound mind is evidenced when defending faults.
– Huineng, 7th century monk
MANY world leaders, past and present, are known to have endured some degree of mental incapacitation best known to their inner circles and a discerning public. Usually, the truth surfaces after these leaders escape through eschatological exits. President Nixon’s mental health issues begat the Watergate scandal and prolonged the Vietnam war.
Lillian Hellman capped the American psyche: “We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It’s considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.” Monk Huineng was right.
The M’Naghten rule (1843) helps the criminally accused if it can be proved legally that an unsound mind was the direct cause of homicide, or serious bodily harm. And there is section 84 of the Penal Code which says that a test for insanity has to be legally, not medically, proven!
The Malaysian Federal Constitution (FC) at Article 43(1)(a) disqualifies MPs if such a person “is and has been found or declared to be of unsound mind . . .”
The unmistakable language and purpose of Article 43(1)(a) FC presupposes psychiatric and psychological tests for MPs before holding office to help ferret out and prevent future embarrassments in courts of law that escalate to scandals. If MPs are asked to declare their assets before and after they assume office, surely it cannot be that embarrassing to subject themselves to such tests which are not IQ tests.
Politics is nothing but the Olympics of unsound leaders – Hitler, Mussolini, Peron, Pinochet, Stalin and Pol Pot. They reached the zenith of their destructive power no thanks to the millions of unsound people who endorsed them.
Malaysia has had its share of the malaise caused by unsound minds holding the public trust as elected leaders. Why their lawyers don’t legally prove and claim that their clients possess unsound minds is a debate for another day. A kleptocrat can easily prove by orchestrated oral testimony that what he or she is charged with did not appear or seem wrong when they did what they did which they should not have done in the first place with or without adequate professional advice. After all, theft is a crime, and the M’Naghten rule should be able to fool a court of law!
Singapore recently acquitted a woman suffering from schizophrenia that led her to kill her eight-year old daughter as she found refuge under section 251 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Medical examinations and findings surely have more scientific solutions than defence lawyers’ techniques, strategies and tactics.
Unsound minds having power over people is a moral timebomb defying sacred Scriptures. We witnessed what these “leaders” are capable of saying and doing from killing or incarcerating political opponents, justifying ‘kissing trains,’ gleefully accepting bribes, to emptying the national coffers.
The Public Trust Mental Capacity Act must briskly be drafted by Parliament to augment Article 43(1)(a) FC if Article 162(6) FC is uncomfortable for the judiciary. Why elect unsuitable individuals with dubious minds as MPs, charge them for misdeeds, find them incapable or incapacitated, sack them, and then call for another by-election? Why not do it before the scandals explode in our faces?
President Abraham Lincoln is said to have had serious mental health problems that caused him constant depression. He acknowledged his problem: “Remember in the depth and even the agony of despondency, that very shortly you are to feel well again.” His assassin had other plans.
The legendary racist wartime leader Winston Churchill was also constantly in the throes of depression. He turned to painting and bricklaying as ways to keep the ‘black dog’ of depression at bay. His would-be assassins failed.
Severe depression hounded activist Martin Luther King Jr. who was driven to suicide at age 13 when his grandmother died. Addressing a conference of psychologists in 1967, he said, “Everybody passionately seeks to be well-adjusted. But there are some things in our world to which men of good will must be maladjusted.” His assassin agreed.
Calls for our unity government must encourage and edify sound minds. Those camouflaging their unsound minds must be ready for the harvest of Article 43(1)(a) FC. Any act or conduct aimed at disobeying the supreme law of the land by fomenting and stoking racial and religious issues requires routine psychological and psychiatric tests.
The supreme law of the land (FC) offers zero refuge for mind benders.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
