The "SINKING SHIP" syndrome.

“On the morning of April 25th I walked into the CEO’s room with my resignation letter in hand. We sat and talked about my wish for a good one hour where naturally, the CEO enquired why I had wanted to do so.

“The CEO is a chartered accountant, a man who took his job very seriously, one who is adept with numbers and besides heading the company, someone whom I also considered a friend…

“There were two things I related to him that morning. First, just as he, a chartered accountant, would not hesitate to qualify a set of flawed accounts, signing each of them not only by his name, but also by the ethics enshrined within the professional body in which he was a member, I too take journalism ethics seriously.

“In my line of work, there is this element called the ‘truth discipline’. It is one that requires a journalist to be correct, right from the spelling of names of persons or places, to all the reports he must file. His responsibility is first to the truth, by which he must then guide society in navigating the path they had chosen.

“Second, I told him that I had weighed the situation for as long as I could but when an American newspaper, headquartered somewhere in Lower Manhattan in New York, wrote a story that got nominated for the coveted Pullitzer Prize, about an issue that happened right under my nose, I began to seriously search my conscience and asked myself why was I in journalism in the first place.

“We had a cordial discussion that morning and the CEO fully understood my predicament and the fact that there was little else that I could do. In my 27 years of being a journalist, I never once subscribed to the saying that if you can’t beat them, join them.

“In this line of work, there is no such thing as the path of least resistance. You have to stick to your principles. Around the world, an average of 110 like us, pay the ultimate price each year to get the true stories out. At the very least, I felt that as a journalist, I had to honour the sacrifices they had made in abiding by the discipline.

“I hope that answers everything.”

Mustapha Kamil 

steadyaku47 comment : 

The NST editor, Mustapha Kamil, has resigned and the above resignation letter he handed in to this CEO explains his reason for doing so. If you want to put it in plain English.......Mustapha is simply saying the "Truth will prevail"

The question that begs answering is when will the truth prevail? 

It will have to take many more Malaysians like Mustapha Kamil to stand up and be counted before that will happen....and even for Mustapha I must ask him why it has taken him so long to do what he has done? 

Is it because he sees the imminent collapse of Najib's government and all that goes with it...and he sees it as being in his personal interest to realign his "loyalty" with the incoming "powers that be?"

Or is it because he can no longer stomach the wholesale use of NST to advance the political agenda of the present BN government under Najib.....and being a man of principle, sees no way out but a resignation?

Who are we to second guess what is inside Mustapha's head....we can only speculate.

What is has done to Najib and his cohorts is to reinforce the "sinking ship" image we all have of the government under his leadership...a veritable ship of corruption, deceit, lies and

abuse of public office for personal gain.

But it would do us all good if we not forget that the rats that leaves a sinking ship will include not only the good, decent, responsible and honest rats....but also the other rats....those that leaves the sinking ship to save themselves. 

Remember these rats for what they are....evil, corrupt, liars, arrogant....and always...self serving and greedy. Here are a few: