A letter from KellToday i would like to rant about my personal story to make people aware that corruption and power in the government could possibly affect our lives even though we do not see how it can.
As i mentioned before, I am a working student. Before venturing into teaching I started my career path with what I was most passionate with; animals. I was fortunate enough to land a job as a groomer's assistant on weekends and eventually this led to landing a job as an outdoor sales representative for a pet supplies company. I was only 19 then and was doing my A levels.
No, I did not need to work. My father was a sub contractor for earthworks and we were pretty well to do back then. The only reason I worked was for passion and gaining experience. Little did I know that starting out early in the world and juggling work and studies at the same time would become a necessity to me.
However, as time passed my father had trouble getting contracts because competition was high and he could not afford to take in contracts that would cause him losses. Then one day he came home with good news. A public listed company had invited him to tender for a project they were carrying out in Johor. I do not know if you are aware, but sand source in Johor a couple of years back was scarce, but my father was fortunate enough to hook up with someone who had sand available. Everything was set and good to go. Our family was relieved as our assets were slowly depleting; one of the reasons why we moved back to Wangsa Maju.
Then, someone did a most despicable action which shows the level of corruption and cronyism in the ruling party. Another man was also interested in this project, and he was a member of our favorite party UMNO. Before the project was implemented, most of the sand permits at that time were up for renewal. This man, having his eyes on the project and through his contacts in power, had an influence over the land office meant to handle the renewal of the licenses. I do not know exactly how it was done, but with his power nobody got their license renewed except him.
This forced the main contractor to have no choice but to award the contract to him which was worth RM1.5 million ringgit. This would not have angered me so, alls fair in contracts and bids right? If he had proved by carrying the project that he was competant, perhaps it would not have seemed so unfair. However, the time period of the project was to be for 6 months which he only managed to complete in 2 years!!!!!
Also after receiving the project, being the incompetent money grubbing idiot he is, he had no idea how to carry out the project which caused him to again sub the contract out to someone who I am sure was paid a meager price to carry it out, while this UMNO member pocketed his money happily and patted himself on the back for the tactics he used.
So what is the morale of the story? It is that no one is really able to find an honest living through their own knowledge and skill if the current trend of the ruling government is not STOPPED!
IT IS ENOUGH! Awarding projects to incompetent people who lick your boots and play golf with you, forcing honest hardworking people into a dead end because they refuse to put an UMNO guy as a facade for their company to ever have any hope of achieving any projects based on their merits. Where is the justice in this?
Perhaps I am bitter, do you blame me? How ever I am proud of what I have achieved and the lesson this has brought me. Without this, I would not have realized that every one of us can be affected by the corruption and crony ism of the govt. No one who wants to earn an honest living can do so if we DO NOT CHANGE the way the country is run. Take for example SCOMI Group who is owned by our dear prime minister's son-in-law. Look at the amount of projects they are awarded without any effort at all.
I also have an anecdote to share. My uncle's father-in-law was a decorated war hero and colonel in the Malaysian Rangers (for fighting the communists). He also served in the Congo UN peacekeeping mission (1950s) and was the military attache in several countries.
ReplyDeleteDuring the peak of his career, he was up for promotion for general rank. Even though his higher brass wanted to promote him, but political forces blocked his appointment on grounds that he was not a Muslim.
If that was not shocking enough, they even had the gall to ask him (a devout Christian) to convert to Islam so that his promotion will be green lighted. He didn't waver.
In later years he became a devout supporter for the opposition, even supporting PAS!