Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Honour to serve

I felt compelled to write again after a few weeks of hectic work schedule.

Headlines:

I am not directly involved… - financial

Teen shot dead in Shah Alam incident - security

Another teen assaulted and shot -security

Stolen car found - security

The events of 3 weeks past have been quite heady to say the least. Tons and tons of newsprint have been produced that involves the few subject matters above. But what really irks the ordinary man like me, is that there is no longer any sense of honour nor accountability amongst our men holding office anymore.

The simplest and basic denomination for anyone holding high office is honour.

Honour to serve King and Country.

Honour to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land.

Trust and responsibility is bestowed upon the shoulders of the ordinary man to carry out his duties responsibly. He serves the country and the institution that he represents. In any job, be it public or private sector, responsibilities that come with holding high level management will mean having to oversee many other departments – effectively overseeing other personnel and their responsibilities as well.

Simple logic will mean that authority, commands and instructions will be passed down the line and each and everyone will have their roles to play.

Here we have the feeling that high positions will mean the carte blanche to bark out orders.

But I guess that only in Malaysia, the view is that orders have to only go one way – orders must go down to subordinates. But responsibility or otherwise known as Sh*t must never go up.

Time and again, we hear of security issues, financial mis-management, scandals etc but never have there been anyone honourable enough to take responsibility for the fiascos. Save except for one in recent memory – Zaid

Hundreds of millions are lost through incompetent management of GLCs and public office, lives are lost through lackadaisical/irresponsible implementation of orders and instructions, but never we hear of anyone MAN enough to admit that Sh*t actually happened during his watch and take responsibility for it.

To all you holding high office up there and squandering the nation’s resources and good name, be a MAN – admit that you were not good enough to manage the people below you and it resulted in the fiascos. Admit it like a MAN. Not hide behind some political powers and obscure spin in the media and hope the issue will blow away after a week or two.

Please do not mix honour with ego.

During my Father’s generation, Men went about their work with Honour.

Today, many go about with their inflated ego.

That’s the difference between then and now.