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How many times do we hear a pledge given, a promise made, only for it to be broken in the next instant, without a blink, some even with a wink? How many times does a person make a pledge he knows he cannot keep, but makes it anyway, because nothing really seems to happen if he breaks his word and forsakes his promise? How many times do we have to watch the hypocrisy of people we call "Your Honour" who we know have no such quality? Upon assuming office, they willingly take a sacred pledge to execute the power entrusted in them with honesty and fairness, for the greater good of the country - but entertain no intention of honouring such a pledge.

These days the term "honour" has lost much of it lustre. "You cannot eat honour," we often hear. "It does not put food on your table."

Honour may not literally put food on the table, but it puts more into our lives; it gives life value and meaning. It is something needful for the shaping of a soul - if we mind, that is.

Honour is a big word, like "life" and "love", and takes on numerous and relative meanings. There is tangible honour like glory, recognition, birth, rank, and awards and decorations, and there is intangible honour, which is in the dimension of a code of conduct, reflective of the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

In many instances, it is the truthful adherence to a set of principles that helps man escape the banality and baseness of life. There can be honour among herdsman, petty thieves and underworld criminals. And there are highly decorated men in the highest offices in the land who possess great intelligence but are without honour.

These people's ability to harm is proportionately greater than their rank and brainpower. "The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honour," said the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

Honour is poles apart from false pride and bogus dignity. It can be achieved without ostentatious public recognition or an enormous ego. It is about carrying out our duties to the best of our ability and true to our principles, even when we see no worldly reward for doing so. It is the ability to try to be better than we are, and in the process giving more back to the place we belong to than taking from it.

Honour and shame are conjoined twins, inseparable but not exactly two sides of the same coin. A man without honour knows no shame. But a man who knows shame is not necessarily a man of honour. A code of honour is not possible without the notion of self-imposed shame; a lie is a lie, fraud is fraud, even if nobody else knows it.

In every community there exists a set of rules or principles that define what constitutes honourable behaviour within that community. In most instances, such a code of honour plays an important part in the development of the community and its direction and aspirations. Without it, a community will collapse under its own weight and differences.

Here in Thailand these days, we pay little attention to things or principles that most deserve our attention - decency, honesty and truth, duty and responsibility for the greater good of the country. All politics may be local, but it need not be personal or for sheer personal gain at the expense of the public.

Lies and more lies are being spread to poison the well, and the national equilibrium is in peril. Maybe Adolf Hitler was on to something when he said that if one makes a lie big and simple, and keeps repeating it, a great number of people will come to believe it as fact. History takes a longer view of events, and it is tragic that it sometimes takes too long for the truth to come out. By which time, the damage has been done.

So His Majesty's remarks on Tuesday should serve as a wake-up call for all of us to honour our duty to the country in every way, large and small, to the best of our ability. To those who have made the official pledge of allegiance, it may be more onerous to fulfil such a promise, but it comes with the territory. To those who do, we owe them our respect, our gratitude and our support.

On May 5, 1950, His Majesty made the traditional first pledge to the nation at his coronation:

"I shall reign with righteousness, for the benefit and happiness of the peoples of Siam."

For all the 59 challenging years since, that pledge underlies and defines His Majesty's every effort for this country and for his people. One can only imagine the weight that rests upon his shoulders and the pain he must have endured at our self-mutilating tendencies. But none of our faults and flaws deters him from honouring his pledge. It is solemn and impregnable.

So, if the notion of honour still escapes, try to open your eyes and look at His Majesty and his lifelong dedication. Look at His Majesty's unwavering commitment to his pledge, down to every single word, and get a glimpse of this difficult and hard-to-define quality.

His Majesty has shown us by example, by his own deed, what honour is and what it entails. The heart knows when the eyes are willing to see.