Charity after self, not selfish charity

A CLOSE relative and his family did something stupid earlier this month – they gave to charity.

It was his birthday and they paid a handsome sum to a temple in India where prayers were held for him, and food was handed out to hundreds of people there.

So, why is that stupid, you may ask.

Well, the man and his family are finding it hard to make ends meet. He works as a security guard and hardly has enough to pay the bills.

Worse, he had an accident recently and has been unable to go to work. No work, no pay.

The family felt prayers at the temple would help change their fortunes.

But I think they would have done better to keep the money to feed themselves and the children.

Charity, after all, begins at home. Like the air stewardesses tell you before takeoff, you have to care for yourself first before caring for others.

Charity is one thing; stupidity masquerading as charity is another.

Of course, there is also fake charity – we have all seen those bogus monks and even some fake charitable homes that collect donations outside the 4D shops.

It’s all actually big business, with those so-called “volunteers” getting a cut of the takings while syndicates rake in the money.

Now, we are told of yet another kind of charity. Apparently, money given to voters before elections is also charity. It’s called alms, or sedekah.

At least that’s what PAS says. Most people, however, would call it vote-buying. I would say it’s just outright bribery.

PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang is claiming that the distribution of cash to voters during the 15th General Election was actually a charitable act.

Videos of people being asked to swear that they would vote for PAS, after which they are given cash handouts, have been doing their rounds on social media.

Hadi claimed that the videos showed ordinary people giving out charity and not bribing them. He claimed there was nothing wrong with such acts and no electoral laws were broken.

Most sane people disagree, of course.

Electoral watchdog Bersih, for one, says giving cash handouts, along with other valuables, during elections is still a form of bribery no matter who actually doles out the money.

There are laws that have been enacted to stop this kind of hanky-panky. But they have yet to be enforced.

It is high time that the government enforced the relevant laws to control this blatant bribery.

To be fair, it’s not just PAS. The party is pointing its fingers at DAP, which apparently paid transport fares for students to return home and vote. It also claimed land was given away in Tioman in return for votes.

If true, those are offences too and those involved should be hauled up. This has been going on for a long time now.

We saw rampant bribery in the 2013 elections. Then, it was all free flow, largely thanks to billionaire Jho Low, now a fugitive on the run.

Ten years ago, though, he was flavour of the month, and leading the psy war – literally.

He brought South Korean Gangnam Style singer Psy to Penang, and funded the kind of giveaway that welfare states would dream of.

There was nasi kandar on the house in many shops, all paid for in advance.

You could just walk in and order your food, eat and walk out. All for gratis.

Better yet, there was a free flow of beer. It was given away in plastic bags – “ikat tepi” with a straw thrown in – and many walked away with several bags, some to be consumed later or by friends.

A woman I know even stood in line to collect money packets, which were given with one condition – you had to vote against then chief minister Lim Guan Eng. She was told off as it turned out she wasn’t a voter in the constituency.

Strangely enough, most of those who partook of the largesse in the elections voted for the other side. Guan Eng and his team won.

Poor little rich kid Jho Low. That was charity that didn’t pay.

With the latest shenanigans, Bersih has urged the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate.

And MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki now says the commission will investigate any form of bribery.

“Name it sedekah (alms) or ‘contribution’, the law deems it a bribe paid to voters – regardless of whether the voters solicit it or not,” he has said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi have joined the bandwagon. Both say distributing cash to voters during elections is corruption – not charity.

With six state elections around the corner, we have to make sure that there is no repeat of such vote-buying antics.

For too long, money has been siphoned from the public purse to feed the selfish desires of those in power or aspiring to it.

Jho Low’s bottomless pockets are said to have come from the 1MDB scandal, when close to RM20bil was diverted from the sovereign fund.

Now, we have claims that millions – or even billions – were lost from the huge aid budget for the Covid-19 pandemic. That money, it is further claimed, is being paid to buy votes.

If people are indeed being bribed to vote, as the viral videos suggest, it’s a cancer that has to be stopped before it destroys democracy in the country. Government aid, like charity, must be selfless and only for those in need.

It’s not charity if it’s done for selfish reasons.