Najib’s Third World Excuse to Justify his corruption
The “selfless” excuse that a person like Najib claims is also, by the way, self-evidently false.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
Former prime minister Najib Razak’s team’s contention that he should not be seen as being guilty of corruption, because the “alleged Arab donation” money that he had possessed in his personal bank, was used “selflessly” for the benefit of everyone else, is the typical excuse that every corrupt person with a third world mentality uses to justify their corruption.
Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah said it is against the pathology of corruption that a person takes money and spends it for the benefit of the public.
“We have proven that 95% of the money was not spent for his (Najib’s) personal (benefit). He did not buy a private plane or treat everyone with champagne at bars,” Shafee said during submissions at the close of the prosecution’s case in Najib’s 1MDB trial.
Contrary to what Shafee believes, “selflessness” is the justification that every corrupt person with a corrupt third world mentality will use to excuse themselves from their crime. No corrupt person will ever admit that they were corrupt simply for the sake of themselves. Everyone of them will declare that even if they were corrupt, they were only corrupt to “help” or “save others”, and thus by intention, they shouldn’t be judged as wrongdoers.
The thought process of every corrupt person with a third world mentality goes like this. “Oh this world is such a horrible place. My family/tribe/ race/party/nation/god is suffering in it. If I have to be corrupt in my dealings in this world in order to help my family/tribe/ race/party/nation/god, I must be willing to do it. Everything is right and good if it is done for the sake of helping others, even corruption.”
This line of thinking might be justified in usage when applied under extreme conditions, but the problem with the corrupt is that they will justify its usage even under regular conditions.
Most people do not consider the action of a starving person to steal food to be a crime, for example. We don’t, because under extreme conditions, like when a person is starving, we tend to accept that such extreme actions like theft, is acceptable.
But nobody in their right mind will accept such an action as stealing an iPhone to be acceptable, because there is no condition where your inability to own an iPhone can be considered an extreme case.
In the same way, if Malaysia was in the brink of starvation or war, and Najib decided to accept a couple of billion ringgit in “Arab donation” in his personal bank account, maybe he could claim that even if what he did is seen as a corruption in the eye of the law, in the eyes of god, he is confident that what he has done will be seen as selfless and noble, but considering that Malaysia is a relatively well-to-do country that is able to help itself without depending on the donations of others, whether it is in the eye of the law or the eye of god, I am pretty darn sure that what Najib has done by accepting the “Arab donation” in his personal account, will be seen as corruption through and through. It is corruption in appearance and corruption in substance. If what Najib has done is not seen as corruption, then we might as well remove the term corruption from the dictionary, for there will be nothing in this world that can be considered as corruption.
The “selfless” excuse that a person like Najib claims is also, by the way, self-evidently false.
It is self-evidently false, because the “selfless” help that a corrupt person gives to others is never given without strings attached. Underlining every supposedly “selfless” help by a corrupt person, is the idea that everybody that the corrupt have “helped” are now in their debt, and thus they are obliged, like Don Corleone says in the classic American movie The Godfather, to “someday, and that day may never come, if they are called upon, to come and serve their corrupt benefactor without question.”
When the corrupt in heart “helps” you without asking you to return their favour, it doesn’t mean that they are helping you selflessly. It just means that they want you to be eternally indebted to them, so that they can call upon you to do them a service whenever they please.
After catching as many people as possible in this “gratitude” trap, the corrupt will then proceed to help themselves with all sort of things, by asking everyone that owes them to do things like vote for them during the general election, support their desire to win without contest during party elections, freely use the private jet or yacht owned by the people they have “helped”, be entitled to expensive gifts and obtain lucrative contracts and positions for their spouse or children.
If Najib was truly sincere in just “helping” others selflessly without expecting anything in return, his lifestyle and choices should justify it. We know how much a MP, Minister or Prime Minister earns. If Najib and his family lives within the lifestyle that his income allows, then he can with clear conscience claim that whatever he did, even if it appears as corruption in the eyes of others or the eyes of the law, was only done with the best of intentions.
Other than living within his means, he should have also made a “Cincinnatus choice” as proof of his selflessness.
Cincinnatus was a celebrated Roman leader who lived a couple of thousands of years ago. He was ploughing his fields when his fellow citizens approached him with the alarming news that their enemies were threatening them, and sought his help in leading them to fight against their enemy. Hearing their plea, Cincinnatus would stop his farm work, put on the garb of a leader and assume dictatorial powers in order to lead the Romans against their enemies. As soon as the war was over however, Cincinnatus would declare that Rome has been saved, step down from his position as the leader of Rome, relinquish his dictatorial powers and go back to farming.
If Najib was truly selfless in his desire to use the “Arab donation” to help others as how Cinncinnatus was truly selfless in his desire to help the Romans, as soon as he had helped whoever it is that he intended to help, he should have resigned from his position as the PM of Malaysia, to prove to the people, the law, himself and god, that his intentions in taking what was not his to take, was merely for the purpose of helping others and nothing else.
Also, another test of whether one is truly selfless or merely pretending to be selfless, is in regards to how one reacts to others being as selfless as one purports oneself to be.
If Najib was truly “selfless” in his desire to use the “Arab donation” to help others, he should be happy to see anybody – even his opponents at the time, like Anwar, Hadi or Lim Kit Siang – receive billions of ringgits in donation from unexplained sources in their personal bank account for the purpose of helping others.
If Najib only allowed himself to receive “donations” to do selfless work, but makes it illegal for others to also receive donations like he had to do selfless work, then who is he kidding if he believes that his heart was pure when he received billions of ringgit in his bank account.
Those who are truly selfless and noble, will be delighted to see everybody being as noble and selfless and them.
Only the base and selfish who are pretending to be selfless and noble will jealously guard their nobleness and selflessness, to ensure that only they and they alone can benefit from their “selflessness” and “nobility”.
If I at all believe that Najib should not be punished for corruption, I believe it only for the same reason that Jesus prevented the people from stoning an adulterous woman. When Jesus prevented the people from stoning the adulterous woman, he didn’t say that the woman was innocent of the charges of adultery. Instead, he simply said that “only those who have not sinned should cast the first stone.”
In the same manner, if at all I believe that Najib should not be punished or have his punishment tempered for the crime of corruption, I believe it so because I think that the vast majority of Malaysians have no right to “cast stones” at him, when we ourselves are likely guilty of the sins that we desire him to be punished for.
Why single Najib out, when there are so many of us who are guilty of what we judge him to be guilty of.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysia Today
