The hanging of Ray Williams - Part 3

The sentence had come as no surprise to him. Indeed, he told me he'd been informed a week earlier exactly what the sentence was going to be, by a friend of his who was high up in the state government. He said, "Your judge received his instructions straight from the top." Well, at least it all made sense now.

So, now it's all over and Ray is in prison. The media have moved on. The scapegoat has been slaughtered and the general public has had its righteous anger duly sated.

Now I hear some leading figures in the Australian Securities and Investment Commission are saying that, in their opinion, HIH should never actually have been declared insolvent. They aren't saying it too loudly of course, as it doesn't make much sense to question whether there was ever a crime committed after the hangings have already taken place.

This re-evaluation squares completely with Ray's belief. To his dying day, Ray will believe if he'd been left in charge of HIH, he would have steered the company through those troubled waters that preceded the purchase of FAI. Unfortunately, lesser men than Ray took the helm in HIH's last year of operation and chose to abandon ship rather than risk going down with the wreck.

Here's my summation of the matter, for what it's worth.

Ray Williams is the greatest leader I have ever met. In a land that has very few true leaders, Ray was a dynamo of industry, a man of initiative and integrity, who loved his team, was always true to his word, was thoroughly honest in all his dealings and who developed HIH insurance from being a two-person operation to becoming one of the largest insurers in the southern hemisphere.

Frankly, Ray is the only leader I have ever met whom I would willingly follow into battle. To my way of thinking, Ray bears a striking resemblance to one of my historic heroes - Confederate General Robert E.Lee. Lee was also a man of principle and compassion and a great leader. Like Ray, Lee is a man who will always be best remembered for losing his greatest battle. The key point of difference, though, is Lee's people did not hang him for his mistakes.