The Paper Chase- 1970ish Film

People go all out to gain some semblance of respectability. Such as buying fake degrees. Getting a master’s degree of PhD seems so easy. It’s a walk in the park.

It has been reported that the BN candidate for Permatang Pauh, is pursuing a PhD degree in something. Some aspersions and doubts were made on that. It seems to suggest that the degree being pursued by our BN candidate is itself of dubious repute. That brings back my encounters with such fellows. Allow me to share with you.

I brought a business friend to see a politician friend. My first friend is a graduate from a university in Australia. A Bona Fide one. He is young. He is a successful planter who is seeking to expand his plantation business in Pahang.

On the wall of the politician friend’s office hangs a certificate. It says an MBA degree from some university in the UK. It reads CMBA(UK) and CDBA(EAU). Then even stranger, his name card states Master of Oxcel in Corporate leadership UK.

Wah- your friend has an MBA maa? Of course I said, politicians are clever you know. I nodded smiling.

After we left, I asked my friend. What degree do you want? A PhD Degree? I can confer on you one. Let’s go to this print shop and I will hand you a PhD certificate in a jiffy. I can just print whatever is written like on the name card of my politician friend.

Can’t you see that it’s a fake diploma? A person’s education is reflected through his ways, mannerisms, thought process etc. Can’t you detect that this person is a buffoon? Never mind that he has a high political post. He can’t hide that from us.

Heck- he can’t even pronounce photo-stat, yet he has a qualification from UK? Haha- its common to hear the UMNOniks pronounce it as photo-state. Hmmm… sounds more like prostate.

My friend---- I have been in the UK for some time. My son is there at the moment. I have never heard of this university or college.

It’s just one of those mills minting any certificate you desire based on your work experience and so forth. I must remember to ask the visiting gardener whether he wants a PhD in Horticulture or not.

Degrees, any one for that matter, it seems are a dime a dozen nowadays. Framing one and hanging it on the wall, or maybe hanging 3 or 4, gives oneself respectability.

If these jokers have any respect for those people who actually slogged to earn one, they will not prostitute themselves as some jackass intellectual.

It is common to have politicians buying degrees from somewhere to camouflage their intellectual paucity and emptiness. They at last know, that our society values men of learning. But please remember, a donkey carrying loads of books, will remain as it is- a donkey, forever!