It is astounding that a RM50 million jet engine can be taken out of a military establishment. Even if everyone in the military command closed one eye, why are our leaders also feigning blindness?

My question is why only 40 people were charged and why was the brigadier-general allowed to keep his pension? Instead, the current defence minister says that the general was indeed reprimanded, but for a difference offence.

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How is this telling the truth? Does this not smell of a cover-up? Is the pension a pay-off for not telling the whole story? It is truthfully only the tip of an iceberg of information, misinformation and disinformation!

Like the PKFZ, can Umno leaders also have the courage to require a commission of inquiry, or is this now a national secret?

Ever since Pak Lah opened up the democratic public space, the Malaysian people have gotten used to the idea that their views do in fact matter, and that we can speak up against wrongdoing.

Finally, ‘truth matters\’ is a phrase that is gaining legitimacy in the Malaysian way of life. There was a time when chief ministers could utter racist comments while the Umno leadership would say nothing, not wanting to reprimand one of their own.

Another menteri besar had previously abused public funds for private purposes, the MACC not investigating the matter and allowing him to continue living in splendour.

A joke who called himself a ‘politician\’ had also unashamedly stole public land belonging to the poor and no one in the government saw any wrongdoing.

This ‘joke\’ was an Umno kingmaker, I hear. What bothers me is that this sickness of mind and heart is not limited to only politicians. But now it is systemic with public servants. It might not even just be systemic but endemic within the civil service.

Truth is not ours to abuse

When truth does not matter, then we are all truly in trouble.

All truth is God or Allah\’s truth. Therefore, we cannot simply subject God\’s truth to man\’s whims and fancies! There was a time when a man-centered truth was only what mattered.

And they called it ‘absolute truth\’. Descartes once said Cogito Ergo Sum or \”I think therefore I am\”. My Islamic philosopher friend and teacher, SH Nasr says, \”He should have said, ‘I think therefore I am only thinking\’.\”

He had moved from thinking to being; which was a shift in categories, in Platonic terms.

If all truth belongs to God; why is man so arrogant to ignore all such truths and do as he pleases?

I like Idris Jala\’s public statement about human nature: \”Man is made beautifully imperfect.\” Consequentially, can I now go one step further to say, human culture while equally beautiful and diverse like the colours of the rainbow, is also beautifully imperfect.

And may I go even a step further to say that all human culture is also therefore tainted with the sin of man and thereby no one human culture is either perfect or better than another.

Consequently, there are different and diverse cultures, all reflective of different evolutions of mankind but none is more superior to another. There are all part and parcel of the one human race and differing languages and cultures.

Now, coming back to my thesis about systematic immorality, why are the public services in such disarray that those charged with care are actually stealing from the very responsibility?

Five taints in the system

In the last few months or so, at least five senior government officers have been charged in public for the failure in their duties and responsibilities.

I pray that they would not plead like Adolf Eichmann, \”I was only following orders.\” Or saya yang menurut perintah .

First there was the secretary-general who collected ‘bribes\’ and used monies vide his private cheques to live an unsustainable lifestyle.

Second, there was the ambassador who ‘voted against the national position on a matter,\’ and has been since called back. Third, the case of a Syariah Judge in Penang who asked and took bribes from an ‘accused person.\’

Fourth is the now infamous general manager who colluded with the ‘system\’ to cheat both the board of directors and all the bosses over millions of unapproved expenditure.

Fifth is the general who was \”punished, but not amounting to loss of pension\” although he should have been court-marshaled and shot before a firing squad over this crime against the nation.

Now, why is my tirade against these public servants? Politicians are generally believed to be corrupt and self-serving, all over the world. Such is and always has been the nature of power-based politics. Power corrupts humans although absolute power never belongs to humans and God is never that corruptible.

My anger and frustration is against the public services because, unless truth matters to us public servants, the country will be destroyed by the corruption of immorality. We are called to defend the interests of the nation and never those of the so-called political masters.

When we fail in our God-ordained duty and responsibility, we betray the good of the nation and that is a national crime worthy of death.

Liars and imperfections

The ease with which public figures lie is indefensible. First, an MP lies about his marriage, although it was public knowledge.

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Next, in the case of the High Court arguments on the Allah issue, I read in the Catholic Herald that the deputy public prosecutor told the court that ‘Arab Christians believed that God was one, but Malaysian Christians subscribe to the Trinity\’.

The Catholic Church lawyers stood aghast and dumbfounded. Lost for words, and shaking their heads in disbelief.

If man is in fact made in the image of our Creator, we should not lie for the Creator never lies.

But, as argued before, if we are made beautifully imperfect to start with, then we need a savior for the sins of mankind. That is the real reason for the season of Christmas.

Christians believe that God sent his personal representative in the role assumption of a son on that beautiful morning in Bethlehem to help the beautifully imperfect man to find a savior to resolve this problem of imperfection.

And therefore, man can rejoice and celebrate that there is hope for mankind.

Yet be forewarned that while perfect love casts out all fear; an absolute God will not overlook the immorality of man even if it is the closing of one eye to any wrongdoing. Because for God all truth matters.

All lies are consequently punishable with spiritual death for eternity. May God continue to love and bless our beautifully imperfect Malaysia. Please enjoy a blessed and joyful Christmas this season.