This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 17, 2022 - January 23, 2022

It’s not easy to be a parent or a grandparent taking care of the young ones. We need to present our best selves to our children because how we behave could influence how they turn out in the future. We need to teach them right from wrong at an early age. Among other things, we need to encourage honesty and truthfulness in our children.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. And if you think your children or grandchildren should be alright just because they have received a proper education and you have set a good example for them, or you have instilled religious beliefs in them, think again.

A rather successful businessman texted me recently and the following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Businessman: JT, help! Can you guys [at The Edge] please stop writing about that international fugitive financier?

JT: Why?

Businessman: My 12-year-old grandson just finished reading the book, Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World. And he absolutely idolises the man at the centre of the story and wants to be like him!

JT: What?!

Businessman: I am not joking. My grandson told me one day that when he grows up, he wants to buy sports cars, private jets and a yacht. I asked him where he would find the money to do so and he replied, ‘Money laundering loh.’ I was so shocked!

JT: Why didn’t you let him read Robert Kuok: A memoir?

Businessman: I did. But he stopped reading at Part II — Building the Business, Chapter 6: My First Loan. He thinks the way Robert Kuok made his fortune as a genuine businessman was too slow.

JT: I don’t know what to say. Maybe you should tell him that if he commits a financial crime, he would eventually get caught.

Businessman: Well, the fact that that fugitive financier is still not caught until today doesn’t really support my argument, does it?

JT: Now that you mention it…

Businessman: I have always thought that my grandson is a very smart boy, and I am very grateful for that. But now, I am worried that he is becoming way too smart. Anyway, I hope you guys can stop writing about that fugitive financier. The more you guys write about him, the more my grandson admires him.

JT: OK, I will let my editors know. We will see what we can do.

Over the years, social commentators and religious conservatives have warned that villain worship could be a dangerous culture shift for our children.

Imagine a child who grows up watching movies or reading stories where the bad guys are actually kind of good. Worse still if the child ends up adoring the bad guys — The Joker, Thanos, Darth Vader — because he or she thinks that they are smart and they were right all along, even though they are clearly evil.

In fact, over the past decade or so, multiple real-world killers from the Western world had cited The Joker as the inspiration for their crimes.

Closer to home, perhaps we should be mindful of our young children getting the wrong message from stories such as Billion Dollar Whale. The last thing our country needs is to produce or inspire more white-collar criminals or masterminds of scandals.
 

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