18/12/2025

THURSDAY | DEC 18, 2025

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When reactions replace reason S OCIAL media debates rarely begin with hostility. Most start with a comment, a difference of opinion or a suggestion M I N D T H E M I N D perspective to return. What felt provocative in the moment often loses its emotional charge after a pause. This delay shifts the response from reaction to intention and intention changes the tone of engagement. B

ensure safety standards are not only written on paper but practised on the ground. No job should ever cost a worker their life. We owe it to the victims and their families to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated. Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye Chairman Alliance for a Safe Community The question is not whether intelligence will transform our world – it already has. The question is whether Malaysia will shape that transformation or simply consume it. Because in the Intelligent Age, the race is not for the biggest, richest or loudest; it is for those who are smart enough to make intelligence serve humanity and not replace it. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com anticipatory, – governments that measure success not by outputs but by outcomes, cities that learn, not just grow and universities that teach not just what to think but how to co-think with machines. The next Malaysia will not be defined by our resources but by our ability to embed intelligence into everything we do – from logistics to learning, from kilowatt to kilobyte. not reactive regulation. It involves reminding oneself that a differing view is not a personal attack and that correction or alternative perspectives do not automatically imply disrespect. This mental separation reduces defensiveness and keeps discussions grounded. Equally important is knowing when to step away entirely. Some online environments are designed to provoke; not resolve. Persisting in such spaces drains mental resources without offering growth or clarity. Protecting one’s mental bandwidth is not disengagement from society; it is an act of self-responsibility. Social media debates become unhealthy when minds enter them unregulated. Triggers multiply, egos take over and reactions feed reactions. Yet, the same platforms can remain neutral spaces when individuals choose restraint over reflex, clarity over commentary and action over argument. The mind leaves traces everywhere it engages. Online exchanges are no exception. Each decision to react or pause contributes to the emotional climate we all inhabit. Healthier conversations begin not with better arguments but with better mental discipline. Sometimes, the most productive response is no response at all. That choice, made quietly and consciously, is often enough to stop an unnecessary chain before it grows. Dr Praveena Rajendra is the author of Mindprint: Engineering Inner Power for Growth, Purpose and Regeneration. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

not the strength of the arguments but the constant feeding of attention. Every reply extends the chain. Every rebuttal invites another. The mind begins to chase closure, validation or the last word. Productivity quietly disappears as energy is diverted into managing emotions instead of addressing the actual issue at hand. One of the simplest ways to stop an unhealthy chain is also one of the hardest – choosing not to react. When a response is withheld, the cycle loses momentum. Without opposition, there is nothing to escalate against. The silence may feel uncomfortable at first, especially for a mind accustomed to defending itself but it is often enough to dissolve the tension entirely. In many cases, disengagement is not avoidance but discernment. Another useful practice is to delay responses. Not every comment requires an immediate reply. Giving the mind time to settle allows

typed in passing. Yet, many of these exchanges spiral into something far more unhealthy than the original issue ever warranted. Voices get sharper, assumptions multiply and, before long, the conversation is no longer about solutions but about who feels offended, dismissed or misunderstood. This escalation happens because social media removes the natural pauses that exist in real-life interaction. In a face-to-face conversation, tone, facial expressions and immediate feedback help regulate responses. Online, those signals are absent. A sentence can be read in 10 different ways, usually filtered through the reader’s emotional state at that moment. When minds are already tired, stressed or overstimulated, neutral words are easily interpreted as attacks. Another reason debates grow unhealthy is the ease with which people are triggered behind a screen. The physical distance creates emotional distance. It becomes easier to react impulsively, to say things one would rarely say in person and to escalate rather than clarify. Keyboard warriors are not necessarily aggressive individuals in real life. Often, they are people carrying unprocessed frustration who have found a space where reaction feels safe and consequence feels minimal. What keeps these debates alive is WE have spent the last decade chasing the “digital economy” as if it were the finish line. But digitalisation was never the destination; it i s only the beginning. The real race now is not about faster machines but systems that can think, learn and act with purpose. We are entering the “Intelligent Age”, which is a time when nations will no longer compete on connectivity but on how well they turn data into decisions and technology into wisdom. Malaysia stands at a crossroads. We can keep digitising old habits by uploading inefficiencies to the cloud and calling it progress or we can redesign how our economy, institutions and daily lives function around intelligence itself. This new era of “Intelligent Age” is not about having more technology but about using it more intelligently to predict, personalise and improve every WE are saddened by the tragic crane collapse at the Malakoff Power Plant in Pontian, Johor, which has resulted in the loss of lives and serious injuries. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims, and I wish the injured a full and speedy recovery. This incident is a stark reminder that workplace safety is non-negotiable. Preliminary indications suggest that Occupational Safety and Health

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It is also worth asking whether an online exchange is actually productive. Does it lead to action, understanding or resolution or does it merely recycle opinions? Many debates persist because people confuse expression with impact. Typing feels like doing something but real-world change demands far more than words. Recognising this distinction helps redirect energy away from endless digital exchanges and back into tangible contribution. Another way to prevent escalation is to separate disagreement from identity. When opinions become personal, conversations collapse. Learning to disagree without feeling diminished requires emotional

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“What keeps these debates alive is not the strength of the arguments but the constant feeding of attention. Every reply extends the chain. Every rebuttal invites another. The

mind begins to chase closure, validation or the last word.

Protecting one’s mental bandwidth is not disengagement from society; it is an act of self-responsibility. – SYED AZAHAR SYED OSMAN/THESUN Embracing age of intelligence

COMMENT by Ashraff Hussni

up call to all employers and industry players. Safety training, equipment maintenance, risk assessments and strict supervision cannot be treated as mere compliance exercises. Lives depend on them. The government should also consider stronger enforcement, higher penalties and more frequent inspections at high-risk workplaces to is evolving into a network of personalised production where design, demand and delivery happen simultaneously. Finance will no longer be about banking hours but about 24/7 financial companions that learn your goals and make money management almost invisible. But in all this, the human role must stay at the centre. Machines can process information but only people can process meaning. If we forget that, we risk becoming passengers in our own future. Why Malaysia? Because we are small enough to be agile, yet diverse enough to experiment. We have done it before by leapfrogging from agriculture to electronics and from manufacturing to digital economy. But agility requires courage. To lead in the Intelligent Age, we must build systems that are

and Health, to conduct a thorough, transparent and independent investigation to determine the root causes of this collapse. Accountability must be established swiftly and firm action taken against any parties found to have breached safety regulations, including contractors, supervisors and management where applicable. This tragedy must serve as a wake Even food will change not in taste but in intelligence. The next leap in agriculture is not bigger tractors but data-driven nutrition – farms that monitor soil microbiomes, diets tailored to our genetic profiles and supply chains that know exactly how much to grow and where to deliver by eliminating waste from seed to plate. The Intelligent Age is not just about machines getting smarter but also about humans becoming wiser. Will we use intelligence to uplift or to dominate? To include or to exclude? In manufacturing, the assembly line helps in cutting congestion, emissions and wasted time. Energy too will no longer be about supply and demand curves but about dynamic balance, especially grids that talk to buildings, solar panels that negotiate with factories and homes that store and trade power like financial assets.

requirements were not fully practised but we leave it to the authority concerned to carry out a full and transparent investigation to determine the actual cause of this tragic incident. In a high-risk workplace, such as the Malakoff Power Plant, strict safety protocols must be observed at all times. We urge the authorities, particularly the Department of Occupational Safety aspect of life, not just for specific groups or communities but also for everyone. We already sit on vast amounts of data in hospitals, schools, logistics hubs and banks. But data means little without insight. Imagine a Malaysia where medical systems quietly track your well-being in real time to prevent illness before it becomes a hospital admission or where school lessons adapt to each student’s pace, teaching empathy and logic with the same emphasis as coding. That is not science fiction but what other countries are already building. We used to say “infrastructure drives growth”. In the Intelligent Age, intelligence itself is infrastructure. Smart mobility is not just about driverless cars but also an ecosystem that understands where people need to go before they even set out, which

Ensure full, transparent probe into crane collapse

LETTERS letters@thesundaily.com