The wounds of honour are self-inflicted.
– Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist
Open wounds that defy healing are usually dishonourably self-inflicted. They get worse as it assumes the proportions of an addiction to making grave mistakes as a result of bad decisions motivated by faulty character traits. The serious contenders are usually corporate heads and clueless politicians.
Clueless politicians with surreptitious financial backing by power-brokers and puppeteers are usually fodder to advance brazen agendas that has a powerful impact on the masses. Using such terms of art like “democracy,” “public interest,” or “national security” the classes automatically acquire a firm grip and a monopoly of the control levers.
Governments plagued by scandals appear unfazed and unabashed.
The open wound of scandals gets even uglier and scarier when the rulers of law launch a devious debacle of laughable defences that should invite summary disbarments. Adorna Properties and Ayer Molek immediately come to mind.
Fortuitously, courageous judges mindful of Article 162(6) Federal Constitution, instituted course corrections.
The CEO of a naval company was recently charged in court for misappropriating RM21 million when RM6 billion worth of naval hardware failed to be delivered for the last eight years. This wound will also be chalked up in the hall of shame as a festering wound with no known cures.
The hallmark for open wounds is a combination of sinister factors – an intention to perpetrate a perpetual cover-up, an intention to steal, a belief that nobody will check or audit their vile and evil deeds, greed, adrenalin junkies with the wherewithal to commit crimes and thereafter appear as victims, to name a few. Once the prosecution proves scienter, it’s game over.
Bad decisions with knowledge that they can come back and bite you are occupational hazards with the advocates and perpetrators of open wounds. It’s said that good decisions come from experience, and experience comes with bad decisions. But, making a deliberate bad decision only proves a proclivity to experience a devil-make-care irresponsible attitude. If I can get away with it, what the hell, the risk is worth it!
James Collins remarked that bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions. But where do we establish intention if we are unable to fathom the mind of the decision-maker who conjures up all the ramifications to sidestep the issue? Maimonides offered a powerful defence: “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.”
MA63 and the issue surrounding the claims of the Sultanate of Sulu are still being viewed as open festering wounds. The jury is out as to whether it is self-inflicted because of faulty and bad decisions. The years and decades roll along but it is said that it is certainly not water under the bridge. But surely, wounds can be permanently healed with the appropriate medicine.
Sometimes a good doctor may prescribe the wrong ointment and worsen the healing process. It’s a clever ploy to keep the medical practitioners busy and the pharmaceutical industry prosperous. In politics and commerce, treatments are seldom permanent cures. The problems have to be there preferably in a worsening state of affairs that keeps everyone busy.
Self-inflicted open wounds that defy cures despite incessant (wrong) treatments are always welcomed and revered in the business of creating wealth and simply making money that keeps everyone busy and focused. These captains of industry seldom tell themselves that their lives are littered with bad decisions except to taxation authorities.
The voting citizen is sick with agony, despair and frustration that the hustings may not offer a lasting solution to right the terrible wrongs. But, as a responsible citizenry, we must not agonise but organise. Those attaining 18 years of age are reportedly getting organised to make a telling statement in GE15.
Our national open wounds need to be cured with the best available treatments that evidence no side effects. Courage and determination must be matched with results-oriented action. Article 153 Federal Constitution offers one such rare opportunity when we focus on the ‘responsibility’ element reposing in the hands of the Executive.
It’s time for the wounds of honour to replace these stinky open wounds. Barricading the truth and muzzling justice must prepare for the guillotine or the gallows depending on the intensity of the intentions of the perpetrators who take pride in the belief that the law is subservient.
Proponents and perpetrators of open wounds must heed Thomas Fuller’s warning: “Be ye never so high, the law is above you.”
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
