Honesty

srizals@gmail.com

Assalamualaikum and a very good morning to all of you, my friends and to all the teachers here. You’re the reason of why we, the pupils of our great nation are here today, for a very important event of enrichment and the betterment of our language proficiency in English.

Honesty,

How honest are we, ladies and gentlemen?
It’s hard to say how honest a person truly is actually. It all depends on his own perception of what he is. Sometimes in life, when things started to fall apart or when we are pushed to the limits, honesty can really save the day or be crushed by one’s greed to save his own skin.

When we are sitting for an examination for example, when we are caught up with the questions, aren’t we tempted to cheat just a little bit to squeeze ourselves to excellent and to excel above the expectation of others?

Aren’t we tempted to lie when it is our only way out of a problem caused by our own negligence and bad judgments?

How honest can we be when we can see all around us, people that chose to be dishonest seems to be doing rather well actually?

Today ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to talk about honesty.
The seven letter word that we tend to forget in going through our demanding and competing modern way of life nowadays. The virtue that we kept on sacrificing for the sake of our own ego, our own fear of being modest and doing our job, our roles according to the book, to the rules that seem inapplicable to us.

Throughout the history of man, honesty kept on appearing in his conflicts, his achievements and even in his failures. Man, through time and time has been tested to the limit of his own self in this test we called life.

A great leader cannot be great, unless he is an honest leader first.
In our own country, we have witnessed men with power, with influence; with great responsibilities have failed again and again when they have failed to be honest with themselves and to the people that trust in them. Millions of ringgit had been lost, companies crumbled, lives shattered and love humiliated because of their greed for power, desire and wealth that exceed beyond the honesty to the people, the society, the country, the religion and even God. The very existence that makes us man.

Closely related to us, when some of our computer labs for schools throughout Malaysia had failed to be completed on schedule or failed to be utilised because of dishonest contractors, who were supposed to build them in the best quality and in the frame of time that they had been paid for.

What more do we have when we have lost our own honesty to ourselves? Imagine the chaos that would occur when honesty no longer plays an important role in our lives.

Policemen tempted to take bribes, criminals have all their ways. Pupils, students, all cheat in their tests and examinations. Everyone is not doing their jobs as they should be. Can you just imagine the effect it would have on our civilisation, on our country and to all that we have loved and cherished in our lives?

Imagine when a child, who was asked by his parents about his homework, whether he had done his homework, lied in order to play with his friends or watch his favourite television shows. What if he started to learn and realise that he can be dishonest and get away with it. Would he grow up to be an honest and responsible adult?

When we submit ourselves during our pray, do we really submitting ourselves to the Divine or we just pretend because we want recognition and respect from earthly being?

When we are fulfilling our responsibilities, would we be doing it to its fullest extent, giving our best if there isn’t anyone watching us, especially our teacher or our boss?

When our mother asked us to look after our younger brother or sister, would we honestly watched over them or just carry on doing what we are doing and hope nothing bad would happened?

When we found some valuables or money, what would we do?
Would we surrender it to the authority or do we surrender to our lust and greed?

These are the questions that would linger on and on as we go through our lives.

God had said in surah Al-Mulk, He had not created death and life but to reveal who among us that have done a better deed.

My friends,

It pays to be honest.
Don’t be afraid to loose a little in our journey of life.
Honesty would help us to discipline ourselves, in our studies and even in our work.
We would be driven by honesty to do our homework,
even though our parents are not monitoring us.
We would behave ourselves
even though when there are no teachers or prefects around.
We would not be tempted to vandalise public properties such as telephone booth or public toilets just for the fun of it.
And hopefully in the future, when we have become adults, we would grow up to be honest adults, adults that performed their work and responsibilities with effort and care, doing all the best they can to achieve greatness in their fields, so that there can be a brighter tomorrow for all of us.

I would like to end my speech with this poem.

Where are you honesty?
In the darkness of greed
In the ocean of lust
And the wave of Cheat

Where are you sweet honesty?
When I face my challenges
And responsibilities
Help me O dear honesty
Help me to see the true real me

Thank you very much for lending me your ears.

==++==

One of the speeches presented by one of my 12-year-old pupil in a public speaking competition. One of them made it to the national level which was held in Kuching, Sarawak a long time ago. It was the proudest moment in my life.

At that time, the national issue was problematic computer laboratories. At that time, the government was introducing IT in schools throughout Malaysia. But there was a hick up. A quite number of the laboratories were not up to the standard and one or two if I recalled correctly even had their roof collapsed. Luckily no one was injured at that time.

The culprits? Well, it was the contractors of course. Greedy and being consumed by it, getting the contracts but selling them to sub-contractors to finish the job. And so, the sub-contractors had to sacrifice the quality of the materials used in order to gain enough profits for themselves. Some were said to even resemble the multi level marketing, in a downward direction which made the lowest hierarchy profiting almost dirt. Those who were supposed to supervise the work quality as always, were either too busy to care and do their job as they should be or the fish is fishier than we think they are. But it was a long time ago. My memory is quite hazy and I could be wrong.

But it is now history. Hopefully, the Malaysians had learnt their mistakes. Hopefully. If not, we are going to keep on losing millions and billions every now and then and the average Joes like me have to save and live properly on a tight budget in order to compensate the losses made by the blunder of the rich and famous. As always.