CATCHING WILD PIGS

This story is from my friend who migrated first to Singapore, and then to Australia.

Malaysia has a lot of private universities which are twinned with reputable universities abroad. There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some foreign students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, a foreign student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter.

The student told the professor that he has a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government to install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question.

He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said that it was not a joke.

"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs will find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again, and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start eating again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom!

They run round and round inside the fence, but they are trapped and caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in Malaysia . The government keeps giving assistance to a privileged section of the population, and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of monetary assistance, programs such as special privileges, discounts, subsidies, payments not to plant crops, welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while they continually lose their freedoms, and the ability to survive on a level playing field, just a little at a time.

One should always remember three truths:

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably ignore this story. But please help us all when the gate behind us slams shut!

Politicians have an agenda that is focused largely on their own interest and not on the interests of the people. Many have little integrity, are without honour or honesty, and without principles.

Quote for today:

"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

In addition, the suspension of meritocracy is probably OK for a limited period to help the slow learners. But at some point, sooner rather than later, you must allow only the best to rise to leadership position at the top.

Yusuf Hashim

24 April 2021