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Moral character is the only way for progressive change 2 « Daring to Change

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:07:00 -0700

SINGAPORE – Four years after he was convicted of deceiving the organisation he headed, former National Kidney Foundation chief executive T T Durai has been stripped of his Public Service Star and Public Service Star (Bar) awards.Durai was found guilty in June 2007 of using a false invoice to deceive the NKF into paying S$20,000 to his interior designer friend David Tan.
The same fate goes for former Ren Ci Hospital chief Ming Yi, who had his Public Service Medal – awarded in 1996 – forfeited on Monday by President S R Nathan.

Notices of the forfeitures were published yesterday in the Government Gazette.

Ming Yi, 49, whose birth name is Goh Kah Heng, was convicted together with his former aide Raymond Yeung in October 2009 over an unauthorised loan of S$50,000 made in 2004 to the Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, a religious artefact shop formerly managed by Yeung.

They were also found guilty of giving false information to the Commissioner of Charities. Ming Yi was released from jail last August after serving four months and is now abbott of Foo Hai Chan monastery.

The awards are given to people who have rendered public service to the country in various fields, including sports, business and the labour movement.

National Day Award winners are announced every Aug 9 and are approved by the President. If a past winner is convicted of a criminal offence or sacked, the President may forfeit the award on advice of the Cabinet.

Durai, 63, was awarded the Public Service Star (Bar) in 1992 for his contribution to the NKF.

But in 2005, an unsuccessful defamation suit that he launched against The Straits Times led to a full-scale audit into the charity’s operations.

He appealed against his conviction and sentence unsuccessfully and began serving his three-month jail sentence in June 2008.

via daringtochange.wordpress.com

[Reposted the above news from Durai, Ming Yi stripped of public service awards by the Government from Today.com]
About 2 years ago, I posted my thoughts about Moral character is the only way for progressive change. I was not happy about how the sentence was done after what both TT Durai and Monk Mingyi had done. Just a few days ago, the Singapore Government had done what many people here would be consoled and justice done — stripping off their coveted titles from the Government.
A society cannot progress positively without any form of moral correctness. A society would eventually fall into pieces if ethics are not taken serious care. Looking at the world that we have today, we cannot deny that high crime rates, diseases, relationship failures et cetra have something to do with moral character and building up of a healthy mind set. Though any form of method would allow one to acheive ‘success’ so as long as the required work is put in and that the motivation is strong enough to push through barriers. However, I would like to emphasize that the evil way of achieving ‘success’ is often ‘rewarded’ with firebacks in the form of endless revenge, bad health and unhappy living. Some people have argued that many bad people whose deeds are evil and unscrupulous often get their way and achieve the fame and wealth, that most others with a much docile character would not be able to achieve. I often feel it is because that people have a high tendency to look at what others have and often blow it up disproportionately without looking further and deeper into the nature of that success. A successful person is one who lives happily without guilt; and able to prosper oneself and others. History has often told us that the very nature of success is via political means of obtaining power and might. But history has also told us that power and might done in the most cunning and sly ways do not lead to eternal satisfaction; if not leading to a tragic end.
Ironically, we often fail to remind ourselves what history has taught us. We often repeat the mistakes done because we do not genuinely repent and learn from various experiences in the luring presence of power, fame and wealth. Many whose minds are complex, because they need to exploit others to get what they want. And it is those, who negatively exploits, suffer from bad health & a poor quality of living that is filled with mostly evil thoughts.
Just take some time to sit down and observe. It’s not that hard to see why being bad doesn’t pay. — Karen Fu

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