What goes around…
One motto in my life which I follow religiously is ‘Don’t do onto others what you don’t want others to do onto you’. I always believed that what goes around, will come around, and as such, if you hurt others, one day someone will come and hurt you in return. Karma, some call it. Others call it fairness of God.
And recently, for the first time, I came to realise and I saw clearly how true this notion is. A few examples; if you keep hurting others with you words, others will hurt you with their conduct. If you cheat your friends, in the end you will feel cheated. If you brag to others, in the end what you brag about will become your embarrassment.
This ‘retribution’ is indeed potent. I do not know whether before this I have hurt anyone to the extant that they hate me, but I know I must strive to just be as nice as I can to everyone. We all should try to just live without hurting others. Really, I don’t think it requires that much effort on our part.
The suspended minister
Surfing the News Straits Times Online today, I stumbled upon an interesting story; the Federal Territories Minister’s suspension from UMNO was cut in half, from 6 years to 3 years. He must, however, resign from his cabinet post. All because he was found guilty of money politics.
I remember 6 or 7 years ago, when, like a lot of other people, I was disenchanted by the ruling government. Amongst the UMNO politicians that irritated me to no end was the current Federal Territories Minsiter (he was the Chief Minister of Negeri Sembilan at that time), as he was quite vocal with his opinions of the opposition that time. Voicing opinions is fine, but not when your arguments are trite and baseless. Needless to say, he was one of my least favorites politicians at that time. I admit, I hated him.
Of course, like almost everyone else, my political affiliations have changed since then. You can almost consider me ‘neutral’, not exactly an opposition supporter, but at the same time not agreeing entirely with what the government does sometimes. And with this re-calibration of my affiliations, I also came to ‘forgive’ the current Federal Territories Minister, which basically means that I do not hate him anymore.
Thus it is somehow ironic that he is in his current predicament. If this was to happen 6 or 7 years ago, I’d be grinning with satisfaction. I had strong desires to see him ‘getting his’ at that time. Yet, when I heard he was guilty of money politics, I was simply intrigued. I was more interested in observing how committed our Prime Minister is to combat corruption. I mean a cabinet minsiter, in any way you look at it, is a high-profile casualty in this war against corruption. And although I do not know for sure whether he is truly guilty, it is likely that he is, and if this is so, then he has gotten what he deserves. Somehow time has given a measure of ’satisfaction’ for me, even though I do not ask for it anymore.
In any case, I’m sure what has happened is for the good of everyone, even the suspended minster himself. I mean if it is fated that he was to return to politics after his suspension, I’m sure he would be a stronger man personally. We must look at this as a lesson for everyone, for the nation, for the government, to ensure that this evil specter called corruption is exorcised from our society.
I mean, these people who practice money politics, they should have more faith in their abilities. If they’re good enough, the will ‘make it’, without having to pay off anyone. And if they’re not good enough, well we’d just rather not see them in the political arena. We already have enough brainless politicians around, in my humble opinion.
