THAT former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is the fifth out of six of our living prime ministers being investigated for alleged corruption and money laundering is a clear sign that most of our elders, especially those who have achieved success in the past, are just not worth respecting.
I will go out on a limb and declare that most of us tend to believe that Malaysia is riddled with corruption, cronyism, kleptocracy and nepotism, and the rot started during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 22-year reign.
If we believe so, then logically we must also believe that the majority of the people who became successful and rose to high positions during Mahathir’s era must have done so because of corruption, kleptocracy, nepotism and cronyism.
What other explanation is there?
If we think that Mahathir’s reign is riddled with corruption and depravities, then we have to assume that the majority of those who became successful during Mahathir’s era are simply not worthy of their success—they simply became successful because of corruption, nepotism, cronyism or kleptocracy.
The fact that most of the people who became successful during Mahathir’s era are today in their late 60s to 80s and thus should be considered as an elderly person worthy of respect, is immaterial.
By right, respect is properly only given to someone according to their beliefs and practices.
If you believe in having a sense of dignity, have a record of upholding your integrity even under duress and are the sort of person that will not tell a lie for all the gold in the world, you are worthy of respect, even if you are young.
On the other hand, if you are the sort that will sell your soul for ringgit and cents, don’t mind humiliating yourself before another person in order to rise up in life and who is such a habitual liar that you no longer can tell the difference between what is true and false, what is there to be respected about you, even if you are 100 years old.
The evidence that our elders are unworthy of respect, adulation, admiration or honour is too overwhelming to be ignored.
If even up to the prime minister level, five out of six of them have a dodgy track record, the rot in our country is so deep that it is likely that everyone from the older generation who has risen to a high position, in possession of a great wealth and is seen to be achieved a great achievement is someone who likely did so through shady means.
If we keep respecting the people who became successful in the heydays of corruption, nepotism and cronyism just because they are now old, we will never cleanse ourselves of our past degeneracy and depravities.
To prevent ourselves for being infected with the same depravities as our elders, as a rule, we should start preventing our elders, especially the ones that have risen to a high position or accumulated great powers or wealth, from influencing us through the opportunities to speak in any forums, podcasts or any functions.
Instead, we need to tell them to prove that they are clean from any forms of cronyism and we should really scrutinise the proof they present to us because the reality is clearly telling us that the vast majority of our elders who were successful in the past are clearly not worthy of their success.
If they fail to provide proof then we should start urging them to just fade away into the background, because by default, we should be given to see their success as a product of depravities and debaucheries that are worth being condemned rather than respected.
If a person has dedicated their life to accumulate knowledge or expertise, it can be determined upfront from their ability and expressions, and it will stand the test of investigation.
It is not our fault that our elders are not worth respecting. It is theirs.
They should start realising that, and do something to rehabilitate their image, rather than expect us to continue to live a lie, and treat them with respect and admiration, when it should be as clear as daylight that most of them might not be deserving of respect and admiration. – March 6, 2025
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Harian Metro
