By CC Pung, J.P
Tokoh Wartawan Sabah and FT Labuan
Good news are rare these days.
Our handicapped athletes won two gold medals at the Paris Olimpics, a feat that our able-bodied exponents fell short at.
Those golds are the first. Let’s hope there’ll be more.
Equally unprecedented is that only 116 people received awards given out by our King in conjunction with his birthday.
The honours list is picked out from more than 2,300 nominees.
That, to me, says one thing: less than one in 10 of those nominated failed to survive a sufficiently meticulous process of scrutiny.
It also says another thing: that those nominated and the ones who made the nomination should now realise that a new benchmark has been set by the King, and gone are the days when awards lists were constantly tainted by undeserving, dubious characters.
Not only will the King be giving out less awards, he has warned about withdrawing awards given to those who ran foul of the law or guilty of tainting Malaysia’s image.
I hail the King for his action.
It is a whiff of fresh air in an atmosphere of much crap.
I hope this practice of prudence and proprietary persists for the rest of his tenure at the throne, and that it be emulated by his successors.
And, at the state level where the respective Sultans and Heads of State hold sway over their respective State awards, I hope they get the message.
We have too many titled people in our society that titles (supposedly honourable and prestigious) are becoming a butt for jokes and ridicule.
Stories have been making the rounds for a long time about State swards being available for cash.
So rampant are such stories that along with them were ‘news’ that certain palaces have authorised certain agents to facilitate such transaction.
I know of a certain ‘dato’ whose title became a joke between mutual friends.
For the life of me I couldn’t understand how paying for an award is the way to go.
I salute the King.
Daulat Tuanku.
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of talantang.com
