From an outcast to a respectable member of Society

Zacchaeus said to Jesus:

“Look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold”?

Once upon a time there was a rich man in Malaysia the mention of whose name evokes memories and images of a cheat, a heartless manipulator of innocent Malaysians whose only crimes were to trust him and his Companies to keep their promises to deliver the houses they had purchased. These innocent Malaysians invested their life savings and their hard earned wages into buying houses to be built by this man and his Companies.

Alas, after having taken the money of thousands of unsuspecting Malaysians, this man and his Companies then abandoned their many housing projects that dotted the landscapes throughout Malaysia and at the same time abandoned the thousands of Malaysians who put their trusts in him and his Companies to their fates.

One day this man asked himself “what should I do now? I have hundreds of Millions of Ringgit, thanks to the thousands of suckers who believed in me. I have all that I wanted except respectability. Every where I go I am treated with derision and contempt like an outcast of Society”

“Who can help me to become respectable?”

After agonizing for weeks “eureka” he said “I found the perfect solution, the Christian Church of course. They are so gullible and they will believe whatever I tell them!”

So week after week this man dutifully went to Church. When it was time for the “Offertory” he would stuff wads of RM50.00 and RM100.00 notes into the bag. Gradually his generosity was noticed and he was invited to attend home cell and prayer meetings.

One Sunday, an out-of-town evangelist came and preached a message of repentance and salvation. When the alter call was given, this man was the 1^st to respond. He went forward, said the sinner’s prayer and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.

Soon after the Church Service was over, the buzz was all over town. In the air-waves, cyberspace, newspapers, magazines and cafes, there was a fierce “War” going. The protagonists are the trusting and perhaps gullible Christians who praised God for the “miracle” on one side with the victims of housing projects abandoned by this man and his Companies, on the opposite side. This “War” will never end. It will go on until the end of time.

In the heat of this fierce war, there are serious and fundamental issues that Malaysian Society had overlooked and failed to address.

The issues are:

i)      Can a man, having cheated and stolen from thousands of innocent Malaysians and having left them to face their fate and having still with him in his bank accounts the Millions of Ringgit he had stolen, so easily gain acceptance and respectability by going to the Christian Church and simply saying the ‘Sinner’s Prayer’?

ii)    Can this man be so easily whitewashed? One moment he was treated with derision and contempt like an outcast of Society, and the next moment, after having said the ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ and standing beside the Church Pastor he has become a “respected member of the Church and Society”.

iii)         Now that this man is a “respected member of the Church and Society”, what about the thousands of victims of his Companies’ abandoned housing projects?

iv)               Is he going to make restitution to his thousands of victims who trusted him with their money?

v)                 What is the role of the Pastor and the Church?

Have we forgotten the story of Zacchaeus in the Bible, who when after he was saved by Jesus he said:

“Look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold”?

vi)      When they know full well what this man had done, did the Pastor and the Church teach this man to make restitution to his thousands of victims who trusted him with their money?

vii)     Can this man be at peace with himself and with his conscience even though he had been “whitewashed” outside?

viii)    Can this man sleep at night knowing that his thousands of victims who trusted him with their money are still languishing and still having to pay the banks for the loans paid out by the banks to this man’s Companies for the houses that were never built nor delivered?

propertygandhi will not answer these questions and invite Malaysians to contribute your thoughts and comments.

If you suspect you know who this man is and you are a victim, without naming this man or his Company, tell us your story and the pains and sufferings this man caused you and your family. Let your pains and suffering prick the conscience of the Authorities who could have done something to save you and your family.

When you contribute your thoughts and comments, propertygandhi requests you to observe the following:-

i)           Do not name this man or his Companies even if you suspect you know who they are.

ii)          When commenting keep to the issues at hand and not make scathing personal attacks on the character of this man and his Companies.

iii)               Avoid using slanderous and libellous language when commenting.

Please remember what Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948) said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.