Fresh back from England and jobless I went up to my father and asked him for RM5. He asked me why do I need RM5 for and I told him maybe I felt like going out for some roti canai with my brother, or something else. He retorted:
“Do you know how much time does a Constable have to put in just to earn RM5? If you don’t have anything useful to spend RM5 on, don’t ask for any!”
My father used to get lots of coupons for free fast food meals to last the whole family a life time. All we could do was watch him give away these coupons to friends and relatives, none was left for any of us.
That was how my father taught us, the way he brought us up. I ended up as a tough nut in the Armed Forces that I used to reject a lot of wet rations sent to the cookhouse whenever I was the Duty Officer that one day the supplier asked the Chief Steward if I had a price. The Staff Sergeant replied:
“You would stand a better chance wringing water out from a rock.”
Integrity is what we were all taught to have, no fear nor favour should we accept from anyone. In my current line of work I can easily earn millions a month if I want to but I value my job, my integrity and my family’s dignity.
Which is why I find it wrong for Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil to have allowed her family to receive government assistance for the National Feedlot project that may or may have not come to a nought. Whether or not members of her family are capable, certified or whatever have you, is besides the point. She is a cabinet minister and her family members should have known not to abuse/misuse/take advantage of her position as one. She has definitely removed herself from the list of winnable candidates for the next general elections, and by her staying on, will only cause people to say that Najib protects cronies. Perhaps, the best course of action for her is to go on leave pending investigations; however, I personally would ask her to resign in order to save Barisan Nasional canvassers from having to answer on her behalf come GE13.
Nepotism and cronyism is something that needs to be eradicated, no matter which side of the political fence you are on.
Talking about cronyism, we have one young fart advising the Menteri Besar of Johor for the Iskandar Region Development Authority. When I say young fart I mean someone who would not have had enough experience underneath his belt to even be the CEO of a public-listed company, let alone advising on a whole economic region. Not unless he graduated from Lincoln’s Inn at the age of 14, but I, too, have a cousin who graduated from Lincoln’s Inn but I don’t think she’s much of an anything. How on earth did he get to be in that position? God, and a few other people might know. I don’t. But my layman brain tells me you have to be someone’s crony to be in a position as important as that – and what more at that young age.
Wan Firdaus, along with a Level Four legacy, Zaki Zahid, were recently appointed to the board of DRealty and Kulim, both in JCorp’s stable. Maybe Zaki’s appointment may not be so bad as he has had some experience being in MRCB before this, but Wan Firdaus? Neither of them are from Johor which makes me wonder if, out of 4 million or so Johoreans, are none fit to run their state’s company?
Maybe, just maybe Menteri Besar Dato’ Abdul Ghani Othman might want to look for outside talents, looking in may not be so good for Johor. But maybe he could answer this: is there any non-Sabahan in SEDCO?
There is already a lot of cry of foul-play by local contractors for being left out by IRDA and IIB for the Iskandar region jobs, yet all we see are more and more of outsiders coming into the region, grabbing what they can.
Perhaps Ghani is still in a comfort zone and still sees Johor as Barisan Nasional’s fixed deposit or a bastion of some sort.
Don’t ask me for hard-facts and figures and so on, I am just a layman looking in. But what I see is not something that I like.
SeaDemon Says 