Mother Teresa said: "To truly give charity, you must be free of selfishness!"

Just the other day I was talking to an old friend and he said something very funny. He said that he truely wants to serve society and do something good for the society. After a cup of coffee, a big cup that is, I discovered his defination of " service to society ".

Serving society by joining a political party. I said to myself " Okay " that's it, he is going to say something really silly. True enough he rambled on about party positions, being head of this, Chairman of that and appointments etc etc.

My point is how many of us really appreciate what is the true meaning of charity, serving the public selflessly and contributing to society without asking for something in return.

I for one has not reached that stage yet. I cannot say that I have achieved this status of being a charitable person. I say this for 3 good reasons.

First of all, I do not think I have the ability financially to contribute such an amount that will make an impact. I do contribute but in small tokens. To some people it would not even be classified as Charity.

Secondly to contribute by giving away some of my time, that is near impossible because I do not even have sufficient time in a days to do my own stuff. How could I possibly contribute my time for charity.

Therefore I am already admitting to the fact that time and money is not one of my stronger points as far as charity is concerned.

Thirdly I do not want to be a hypocrite like my friend blowing his own trumpet and say that he is contributing to society when he hoped to get something out of the effort he had put in.

When I was doing my stuff for the political party, make a good guess. That's it - nothing more and nothing less.

Most of the people do things for their own benefit. Call it selfishness or call it whatever you want. But the bottom line is that he or she needs to put food on the table, pay for the tuition fees, pay for the maid's salary, worker's salary, parent's pocket money, short holidays with the family etc etc. Who do you think will come along and say I am willing to put food on your table. Someone saying that would probably be wanting something in return as well.

So you see, don't talk about charity or serving society unless you truly know the meaning of charity and service to the public.

Nowadays we hear of so many politicians saying that he is fighting for his own race and his own people, fairness and so on and so forth. His loyalty to King and Country. Rukunegara all thrown in. But I do not believe a single word they say.

What is our national philosophy.

Our nation, Malaysia, is being dedicated :

• to achieve a greater unity of all her peoples;
• to maintain a democratic way of life;
• to create a just society in which the wealth of the nation shall be equitably shared;
• to ensure a liberal approach to her rich and diverse cultural traditions;
• and to build a progressive society which shall be oriented to modern science and technology;

We, her peoples, pledge our united efforts to attain these ends guided by these principles:

• BELIEF IN GOD
• LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY
• UPHOLDING THE CONSTITUTION
• RULE OF LAW
• GOOD BEHAVIOUR AND MORALITY

I am still trying to do all this and be honest with myself. Please tell me that I am wrong. I would like to hear about it.

How many of you are prepared to stand up and say that I am truly a charitable person now ?