sweet charity....

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”Winston Churchill

Today the social network went on over-drive whacking one man Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor or affectionately known to some as KuNan, the Federal Territories minister of Malaysia, who has decreed that it is a crime to give or accept alms. And to add to his callous threat  he's even beefed-up the closure of all soup kitchens in a 2kilometer radius in the city centre. ( read here and here )

To interpret in his words, all that is taught in religious and moral classes in any institution all this while is so wrong. This is from a man who looks like he's never gone hungry in his entire life. A man who  never know what hunger is as he was born in the lap of "royalty" and opulence. And to utter such unkind words to the children of a lesser God in his holy month of Ramadan. 

But I guess fashionable Bangsar and Lucky Garden in particular, is outside of that 2kilometer "KuNan radius" where numerous "blind beggars" chaperoned by able-bodied persons, strut from table to table in every eatery daily between 9am to 5pm, "selling" tissues. The selling is bullshit but the begging is real as nobody pays one ringgit for a small packet of 5 pieces of 2-ply tissue but readily donate the ringgit purely out of guilt ( for acknowledging their good fortune of not being blind !)  and sympathy. Nothing more, nothing less !   

I must add here, there is a very charitable gentleman in Kampung Baru, who during Ramadan every day without fail serves free and delicious "bubur lambok"(glutinous rice porridge) to hundreds who line-up in sun or rain to collect a packet home. And his "soup-kitchen" is smack within the 2kilometer circle. Will he too be charged for doing charity ??

So wouldn't the PM Najib also be guilty of the same act of giving "alms" to the hundreds of beggars (so-called poor persons) in the form of BR1M or FR1M or what1ever an act of charity but in reality a subtle persuasion to garner votes ?  Can we say Najib is just as guilty as those who give alms to beggars ?