COMMENT Charity, doffing the cap to Dr Samuel Johnson, is the last refuge of humbugs.

The pledge of billionaire Vincent Tan that he will donate the half a billion ringgit from the sale of his shares in a soccer betting business he owns to charity is a nice feint he is trying to sell the public in the hope of clearing the way to ‘goal’.

vincent tan sports betting ‘Goal’ here would be the mega profits he would reap from the licensing of soccer betting on the World Cup due to start in South Africa on Friday.

Public opposition to the scheme, manifested by the bans imposed against it in Pakatan Rakyat-run states, means that Tan’s route to more riches is stymied on some paths.

He is dangling the charity sweetener in a desperate attempt to clear the way to ‘goal’, relying on mere denial as sufficient to ward off claims that profits from the soccer-betting scheme would go to fund Umno-BN.

To Pakatan, that denial is as plausible as assurances that the peace flotilla headed for Gaza is all about humanitarian aid, and not concealed weapons, would be to Tel Aviv.

In other words, Tan’s word, in these straits at least, is not regarded as his bond.

Coupled with the downside of what soccer betting - the illegal kind - has done to some households in World Cups past, let’s say the charity sweetener is just one desperate gambit to get through the roadblocks ranged against the scheme.

We can do without it

Here is a clear case where the fall of several state governments to the opposition in the last general election has rebounded to the people’s advantage.

A socially detrimental scheme is baulked by its unpopularity and the possibility of profits from it being put to fraudulent use is forestalled.

As for the potential of charitable use for its profits, well this is one opportunity for charity a wary public, with a touch of its forelock to Dr Johnson, would want to pass up.

 

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.