A pluperfect dream
WHAT do we do with the emotional residue of this business?" Lance Morrow asked in Time magazine after the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. In this country, we also have a business in hand ever since the chairman of the National Sports Council drew criticism for sharing the stage with an alleged convict at a signing ceremony. Now that he has resigned from his post citing personal reasons, what do we do with its emotional baggage?
If we take his resignation at face value, it means he has left his position because he didn't want to tell us how it happened. What happened, of course, is a contradiction. A man who had vowed to fight corruption was seen in the company of another man who symbolised its ultimate form. His vaunted words still ring in our ears. The country was like a derailed train, he said. He had promised to pull it back on track, but life is full of contradictions. The rescue man was worn out by exertion.
I don't intend to criticise a man who has already shown his recompense. Yes, it would have been nicer if he had showed it with an open confession, if he had stated that he was quitting because it was an error in judgment. It would have cautioned others to avoid men of questionable integrity in future. It also would have induced others with the rare courage to admit when they have wronged.
So be it as it should, and the clamour of criticism is going to die down after the resignation. Busybodies we are, life will soon engulf and force us to erase this one incident from our minds like many others before. But it will do us some service if we spend some time peeling this onion to its nub.
To start with, it's not about the money but the man. Nothing was wrong if the Football Federation was relieved to find a generous sponsor, who was going to save it from financial worries. It was nice of a business house to pledge a substantial amount of money along with two spacious playgrounds so that football could get another chance in this country.
But everything was wrong when we linked the man to his money. We don't know if the criticism would have been as fierce if the sponsorship were signed in absence of the NSC chairman. Would anybody have raised eyebrows if a different man had represented the sponsor?
I ask these questions because there is a gap in our minds, a gaping gap that compels us to live in a world of wishful thinking. In that world we credit the money and debit the man and keep them separate in a bizarre bookkeeping of moral entries. We don't mind taking donation and sponsorship from a company fined for regulatory breach. But when the owner of that company is accused of wrongdoing, we don't wan to see his face.
It means we are eclectic when it comes to handling shame. Newspapers can take advertisements, banks can open accounts, buyers can buy products and others can benefit from doing business deals. Then it's not right to take donation and sponsorship from a company whose owner is a fugitive of law. Where do we draw the line between a business and its owner whose immoral practices build its basis?
Practically, we run the musical chair of moral audacity. The tax dodger goes after the loan defaulter, who goes after the bribe taker who goes after the extortionist. This is where the emotional residue overtakes passions and each of us tries to find a wrong with the other man. It was for the same reason that the Football Federation president was perplexed by the criticism. He couldn't figure out what it was that he did which others hadn't done already.
This is where the former NSC chairman also chewed up the scenery. After all, it was being done to create a head start for football. He must have felt equally excited because the rejuvenation of the once most popular game in this country was going to become his legacy. He had his eyes fixed on history, oblivious that it was getting smeared next to him.
His exit will definitely dissipate the criticism of that odious meeting. But long after he is gone, people are going to remain frustrated with a sense of inadequacy. They are still going to wonder when people in this country don't learn to look before they leap.
That's the first thing we need to learn. Next will be practicing the practice of what we preach. No gaps, no lapses, no emotional freight to carry. It's my dream. One day we shall make money without having to worry what money makes of us.
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