Stealing From a Thief

This is on the phenomenon of vote-buying that seems to have become a feature in every election we've had.

I was commenting about it on FB when it got rather long. I thought it deserved a blog post on its own so here I am. Its a rant so don't say I didn't warn you.

So some guy offers you some money to do something you dislike, like voting for someone you would never vote for.

Being a concerned and responsible citizen, you naturally have no intention of doing it but you decide to say ok anyway. Wink wink, nudge nudge. He trusts you, gives you the money, you pocket it and walk off.

You quietly tell yourself, "Not only am I not going to do it, I'm going to take his money too! Serves him right for asking me to do that disgusting thing."

Nothing wrong, right? Since vote buying is corruption, you feel justified to "gasak" his money, just to teach him a lesson.

Now, am I one of the few who thinks this is plain flat-out stealing?

Sadly, I'm beginning to think so.

I hear people say, "Take it la. The money's legal!"

Legal? Maybe.

Ethical? Hardly.

And that's the problem. Since when did we learn that its not ok to steal from the good guys but its ok to steal from the bad guys?

Stealing is stealing no matter who you steal it from. Jeez, my mother taught me that when I was a kid.

When I take something with no intention of honouring my part of the bargain, that's deception, a clear act of dishonesty on my part. You might think its ok to steal from a thief but since when does two wrongs make a right?

Based on the social buzz, it seems we Malaysians on either side of the fence have no qualms about behaving dishonestly. None whatsoever. And it pisses me off.

What pisses me off even more is that this is coming from members of civil society, people who I'd like to think are level headed, rational, fair minded. Future leaders even.

If fair minded, justice seeking people have no qualms about acting dishonestly and doing it in the open some more, what hope is there?

Whatever happened to personal integrity?

Since when have the good people of the country become Machiavellian?

Are we thinking we're being clever fighting fire with fire when in fact, we're really people without principle?