雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章9:紅包

So when the official angled for a bribe, my father turned on him with all the force of his years of debating. ‘Why are you asking all these questions?’ he demanded. ‘Am I in an office or am I in a police station or a court? Am I a criminal?’ He decided to challenge the officials to protect other school owners from such bullying and corruption. He knew that to do this he needed some power of his own, so he joined an organisation called the Swat Association of Private Schools. It was small in those days, just fifteen members, and my father quickly became vice president.

所以，當官員擺明要收紅包時，父親用他這麼多年來辯論的經驗做出迴應。“你爲什麼要問我這些問題？”他質問道，“我現在是在辦公室裏還是在警察局？還是在法庭上？我是罪犯嗎？”他決定挑戰這些官員，以保護其他學校免受這樣的欺凌和腐敗。他知道要這麼做，他自己得先要有一定的實力。於是，他加入了一個叫作斯瓦特私立學校協會的團體。這團體當時規模還很小，只有十五個成員，父親很快就當選爲副主席。

The other principals took paying bribes for granted, but my father argued that if all the schools joined together they could resist. ‘Running a school is not a crime, ’ he told them. ‘Why should you be paying bribes? You are not running brothels; you are educating children! Government officials are not your bosses, ’ he reminded them; ‘they are your servants. They are taking salaries and have to serve you. You are the ones educating their children.’

其他的校長們都把送紅包當作理所當然的事，但父親堅持認爲，如果所有的學校都團結起來，那麼他們就可以抵抗這種不良風氣。“辦學又不是犯罪，”他對他們說，“爲什麼你們要塞錢？你們又不是在開妓院，你們是在教育下一代！政府官員不是你們的老闆，”他提醒他們，“他們是你們的公僕。他們領薪水是要爲你們服務。教育他們的小孩的人是你們。”

He soon became president of the organisation and expanded it until it included 400 principals. Suddenly the school owners were in a position of power. But my father has always been a romantic rather than a businessman and in the meantime he and Hidayatullah were in such desperate straits that they ran out of credit with the local shopkeeper and could not even buy tea or sugar. To try and boost their income they ran a tuck shop at school, going off in the mornings and buying snacks to sell to the children. My father would buy maize and stay up late at night making and bagging popcorn.

父親很快成爲協會的主席，並不斷擴大協會規模。直到後來，協會擁有了四百個校長會員。突然間，這些創學之人形成了一股力量。但我父親雖然身爲生意人，卻更是一個浪漫主義者。當時，他和希達亞圖拉已經完全陷入絕境。他們在當地店面已經不再被允許賒賬，甚至連茶或糖都買不起了。爲了增加收入，他們試着在學校裏開了一間糖果店，早上開始做生意，買進點心來賣給小孩子。我父親會去買玉米，然後連夜爆成爆米花並裝袋。

‘I would get very depressed and sometimes collapse seeing the problems all around us, ’ said Hidayatullah, ‘but when Ziauddin is in a crisis he becomes strong and his spirits high.’

“我當時非常沮喪，有時會因爲看見太多問題無法解決而整個人幾近崩潰。”希達亞圖拉說，“但是當齊亞烏丁身陷危機的時候，他卻會變得更強壯，意志更加高昂。”