“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” said Juliet to Romeo in one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene II).
I have faith in the Bard of Avon’s famous phrase – I believe that what matters is what something is, not what it is called – and so a rose would smell lovely no matter what name you give it. Likewise, garbage would stink no matter what moniker it goes by.
Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a group of people over the Penang Chief Minister’s alleged corruption over his purchase of a house. Most of them voiced total, unreserved support for Lim Guan Eng – even though, when prodded further, I found that their knowledge of the case was limited to what they had seen and read in various news media.
“Why go after Guan Eng when the authorities have no b**ls to go after Najib?” cried one. “The house deal in Jalan Pinhorn is nothing compared to the allegations against the Prime Minister!” thundered another. All in all, their protestations sounded no different from the countless comments I’ve read on social media by supporters of the beleaguered CM.
This is my ‘takeaway’ from the reaction of many Malaysians to the Penang CM’s bungalow controversy: people are a lot more forgiving of members of the Opposition who find themselves embroiled in scandals than members of the government.
Why like that one, ah? Seriously, how can a politician be considered incapable of wrongdoing (or, worse, be immune to censure) simply because he or she is attached to a party you happen to support? Of course, the Penang CM is innocent until proven guilty – but doesn’t this knee-jerk tendency to close ranks and adopt a stubbornly defensive stance risk endorsing a lack of accountability and malfeasance among your very own political representatives?
This makes me wonder – if a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, would corruption by any other name smell as bad?
A rose is a rose, is it not? So why is corruption any different?
What happens when a rose starts smelling like garbage? (I am not sure about you, but I refuse to sniff anything that smells like garbage even if it is called a rose. And I think you shouldn’t either).
Likewise, a crook is a crook. No one should blindly support an alleged crook (or a proven one) even if he or she belongs to the team of the supposed ‘good guys’. No one should endorse corruption, regardless of whether it involves RM2 million or RM2.6 billion. I don’t. Neither should you.