Tunku Abdul Aziz

A certain member of Parliament heading an MACC committee has suggested that MACC should not only be given more money, as if the tens of millions of ringgit of government funds already dished out are still insufficient, but also the power to prosecute cases investigated by that organisation itself. A monstrous idea even if the MACC had a reputation for the highest professional integrity which, of course, it hasn’t. The fact of the matter is that this much touted independent corruption fighting outfit modelled on the Hong Kong ICAC continues to be regarded with a degree of disdain.

The MACC does not enjoy the cachet and the public trust and confidence of the Malaysian public. Only corrupt politicians and public servants have complete trust in the MACC, but, sadly, for all the wrong reasons. Someone somewhere has to have his head examined for even thinking of making the MACC a law unto itself. Has the YB concerned not heard of the need for a system of checks and balances or the vital necessity of avoiding a conflict of interest situation in the conduct of public affairs as a means of reducing corruption? The whole harebrained suggestion is akin to allowing the Attorney-General to double as a judge in a case he has decided as AG to prosecute! He may well relish the idea, but will justice be served in the process? Or perhaps we don’t care.

The MACC is apparently only good at bleating about insufficient funding. Many anti- corruption agencies in countries much larger and better endowed than Malaysia would drop on their knees to thank God the Almighty for a drop of what we apportion to the MACC to do the work expected of them, but sadly they have failed to deliver. It is really quite pointless defending them on the grounds that they are still new. The acronym MACC may be new, and we sometimes forget that this is the same old wine-turned vinegar presented in a new bottle. By continually saying that they need even more resources, they are publicly admitting, and Transparency International HQ in Berlin please note, that corruption in Malaysia has become endemic in the system and has assumed Sub-Saharan African proportions. By their own admission, they have failed to arrest the spiralling problem of corruption in this country.

If the corrupt are crawling thick on the ground, in their thousands, why is it that the MACC has been so singularly unsuccessful in pulling in the bigger species such as cabinet ministers, chief ministers, menteris besar and others of their ilk? By your failure, are you intimating that Malaysian public figures are men and women of probity, honour, integrity and totally incorruptible? The money you ask for will be there, but we want to see some results. Is that too much to ask of our MACC that is proudly trumpeted and proclaimed as being based on the Hong Kong anti-corruption model? You can adopt any model, but do not forget that external factors can only be as influential as your internal weaknesses will allow. To use a soccer analogy, do you think adopting the German soccer model will make the slightest bit of difference to the moribund Malaysian national soccer team?

The MACC will not earn its spurs unless and until it is placed under “an all-party” parliamentary committee, and not Najib who himself has many allegations of impropriety to contend with. I do not believe that the chief commissioner has the courage to investigate allegations of corruption against the Prime Minister, and other high officers of state under existing arrangements. Your claims to professional independence in the present circumstances are nothing if not spurious to say the least.

The MACC is its own worst enemy. It is run, and I have no doubt in my mind, by people who are totally unsophisticated in the art of damage control. Even with its reputation in tatters resulting from its questionable interrogation methods in the Teoh Beng Hock case, it is insistent that it will not allow a video camera into the room in which its officers will record a statement of a witness in London which they are going to conduct shortly. It will also not allow a lawyer to be present during the interview of the witness. I am totally lost for words to describe the obtuseness of our corruption fighters. How on earth do they expect us to take them seriously when they cannot appreciate the fact that their actions are under constant scrutiny, and we are watching for signs that they can be trusted? They have to earn our trust by their actions which have to be grounded firmly in public duty for the public good. In short, In God We Trust, in the MACC we don’t without first seeing the colour of their money. Our “independent” MACC has its work cut out for it.

Malaysian Insider

JUNE 5 — I am told on good authority that you cannot make good china with poor clay, and it is so obvious that we should know it instinctively. By the same token, I expect you cannot form an effective Cabinet with general election rejects.

Appointing them to Cabinet posts in such large numbers through the Senate is not illegal, but is it ethical? Jesse Jackson in a speech to the 1992 National Democratic Convention reminded his audience that what was morally wrong would never be politically right.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as our prime minister, would do well to ponder and reflect on the wisdom of this self-evident truth so that he would feel encouraged and inspired to bring moral and ethical principles to bear on the governance of this nation. I naturally hope that in the process, and with God’s help, he will find some time to dwell upon his many grave lapses that have brought his fitness for the highest political office in the land into serious question.

Some months ago I had occasion to allude to the fact that no prime minister in our country’s history had come into office, bent over not with the burden of leadership which would have been understandable, but in Najib’s case, it was his oversize baggage comprising a mix of potent allegations of impropriety ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

While some may be nothing more than coffee morning tittle-tattle among the leisure classes, and, therefore, to be treated with the contempt they deserve, one worrying aspect of Najib the man that refuses to evaporate into thin air is corruption.

People still point to the arms purchases made during his long stints as minister of defence, and what he got out of them through his redoubtable defence/political analyst, Razak Baginda.

Would the MACC care to take a look at the wealth behind the man so as to give our 1 Malaysia prime minister a chance to clear his name? And while they are looking at Najib, I think it only fair that they take a look at the wealth of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his family. To show that they are not being selective, they might like to check out Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his family. I am sure these great leaders of ours are dying to clear their names for the sake of their reputation, however defined.

To return to the blatant abuse of the function and role of the Senate in the constitutional life of our country, it is clear that Najib does not put great store by basic rules of the game. He obviously plays by his own rules that postulate the inevitability of immoral behaviour in politics and that scruples are not for the prime minister of Malaysia.

This is a sad commentary on 50 years of Barisan Nasional rule that has seen this once proud country now on its unstoppable decline in social, political and economic terms. Is this the promised just reward for the people of this country for putting their blind faith in the Umno leadership?

It is also a sad reflection of the bankruptcy of ethical values that those whom the people of this country, exercising their rights to choose, cast aside in a democratic process, have now been brought back into the Cabinet.

Who are these recycled seconds supposed to represent? Even if they were a galaxy of Nobel laureates, it would still be totally indefensible for Najib to show such utter contempt and disregard for public opinion by appointing them to the Cabinet. And these are by no means the crème de la crème of Malaysian brains-those that have not disappeared overseas.

Najib plays by his own rules. For him, offering inducements to voters as played out in the Hulu Selangor by-election with a repeat performance in Sibu was par for the course. He obviously could see no contradiction in urging the people to fight corruption while he himself breaks the law with complete impunity, as always aided and abetted by the ever independent Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, so it proclaims, and the equally fearless Elections Commission.

When will Najib learn that there is no substitute for integrity in national life? It is within his power to clean up his act so as to lessen the burden of the negative views and innuendos that he carries on his back to the detriment of his effectiveness as PM.

He must learn quickly that the ultimate decision whether he remains in office, and his party in power, will be made by the very people for whom he has shown such blatant contempt. He may, at this rate, be the last Umno prime minister. — mysinchew.com

The very idea that the headman of the MACC be accorded a status equivalent to that of the Inspector-General of Police was so hilarious that I, a grown man, was driven to sobbing uncontrollably before I doubled up, laughing my head off. I have, in my lifetime, been through many strange and unusual situations, but I must confess to a sense of incredulity that members of the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board headed by former chief justice, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad were prepared to risk their collective reputation by putting this recommendation forward. It is absurdity personified.

The other recommendations, including the establishment of a statutory commission on appointments, and the need to have interrogation rooms equipped with CCTV cameras, must rank as among the most facile suggestions ever made by a group of people who lay claim to expert knowledge and experience of a level considered sufficient to justify their being appointed to the advisory board.

In the event, by their earth shattering recommendations, they have confirmed what I have known all along: they know nothing about fighting corruption, or for that matter, the Chief Commissioner, if he had to be “advised” on what equipment was needed to be put in place to make the interrogation process more open and transparent, then he has no business to be there in the first place. I make no apology for using the word interrogation in relation to the methods adopted by the MACC when dealing with witnesses. The word interview is yet to be part of the MACC’s corruption fighting lexicon.

The recommendation to equate the head of MACC with the Inspector- General of Police not only shows a pathetic lack of understanding on the part of the advisory board of the duties and responsibilities of the Inspector-General of Police and the officers under his command and control in the overall scheme of national security and public order priorities, but also insensitivity to the intelligence of the public. To believe that an untried jumped-up middle rank public servant barely able to keep his head above water in the job is on par with the head of the Royal Malaysia Police is the height of fantasy. This is similar to proposing that the head of Rela be given the same status as the Chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff.

PDRM is an organisation with a 200 year tradition of public service. Admittedly there have been some hiccups along the way in its long history of protecting life and property, but it has been through several baptisms of fire, and not once has it been found wanting whenever the nation needed it desperately. The makeover from the ACA to the MACC has not resulted in any marked improvement in its performance. It is the same old wine in a brand new Waterford decanter. The wine is still the same, not fit for the table.

My advice to the MACC Chief Commissioner for what it is worth is not to let his ambition exceed his abilities which have yet to be tested and proven. Until Malaysians are absolutely convinced that the organisation he has inherited by default, not his fault, naturally, can be relied upon to carry out its duties in the public interest, and thereby earn their respect and confidence, he will have absolutely no credibility or clout. A senior member of his staff has been to see me, of his own volition, for some advice. He is not happy with the ethical and moral dilemmas he has had to face under the present leadership, and it appears that unless staff morale is attended to sensibly and quickly, the Chief Commissioner’s tenure could be problematical.

So, as we have seen, public confidence, without which he might just as well close shop, is not a commodity that can be bought in a supermarket. He has to earn it the hard way; persuading the government to dress him up to look like a poor imitation of the Inspector-General of Police is not going to help him succeed in his job. People have yet to see the colour of his money, in a manner of speaking. He can say what he likes about doing a great job, but people want results. They are his judges, and on present showing he is seen to be long on self-publicity and rather short on productive effort. I know from inside information he has been busy hiring spin doctors to tart up his image and that of his organisation. Don’t throw good money after bad because public trust and confidence will not return no matter how much money is spent on cosmetic surgery.

MACC’s much touted independence is under close public scrutiny. I am told, again on the internal grapevine, that he insists that every MACC function must have a minister present. MACC should not have too much to do with ministers as this could cause embarrassment should it have to arrest them for corruption. But I suppose MACC’s independence stops short of calling corrupt ministers to account, and so everyone is a winner except the nation.

I see that the MACC Director of Investigation is probing the labyrinth of commercial networks and dealings in search of “elements of corruption” as he puts it, in the Sime Darby affair. The Director of Investigation is a fine man, extremely good at preparing slides for power point presentations but he would not know where to begin. It is a job for trained forensic accountants from the big audit firms with international connections. I know what the outcome will be-there is no evidence of corruption. Remember the Perwaja episode?

Oleh Norasikin Samsi (Suara Keadilan)

KUALA LUMPUR 3 Mei – Naib Pengerusi DAP, Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim mendesak Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Musa Hassan meletak jawatan dengan segera berikutan kelemahan serta kegagalan beliau menjalankan tanggungjawab menjaga keselamatan negara terutama sekali apabila peningkatan kadar jenayah semakin berleluasa.

Tunku Abdul Aziz berkata desakan itu juga dibuat berhubung kenyataan Musa yang mengugut untuk menarik balik anggota polis daripada berkawal di jalan raya selepas insiden remaja berusia 14 tahun, Aminulrasyid Amzah yang mati ditembak polis di Shah Alam pada 26 April lalu.

Katanya, reaksi Musa itu sekaligus melambangkan sikapnya yang tidak boleh menerima kritikan orang lain apabila sesuatu isu berhubung keselamatan awam mahupun kelemahan institusi Polis DiRaja Malaysia dibangkitkan.

“Dia ni memang tak boleh terima kritikan langsung. Kalau kita buat apa-apa kritik, dia terus mengugut untuk menarik balik anggotanya daripada menjalankan tugas. Ini jelas menunjukkan bahawa dia seorang yang tak boleh menerima kritikan orang lain sedangkan tugas utama beliau adalah menjaga keselamatan negara. Dia ingat institusi polis dia yang punya,” katanya dalam sidang media di lobi Parlimen hari ini selepas sidang Dewan Negara.

Dalam pada itu, Tunku Abdul Aziz turut mengkritik peranan PDRM yang sebelum ini memaklumkan bahawa kadar jenayah di Malaysia berjaya diturunkan sedangkan hakikat sebenar berlaku sebaliknya.

“Apa yang dia cakapkan bahawa kadar jenayah telahpun menurun adalah tidak betul. Jika kita tengok masa sekarang di tempat dan kawasan yang kita tinggal baik di bandar mahupun di kampung jenayah semakin bertambah.

“Saya baru balik dari Tawau dan Tawau paling banyak berlaku jenayah di Malaysia dan sekarang banyak bandar dan kampung di Semenanjung dah jadi macam Tawau juga,” katanya lagi.

Sehubungan itu, beliau menggesa Ketua Polis Negara meletakkan jawatan dan posisinya digantikan oleh orang lain yang lebih layak.

“Dah nak bersara lagi enam bulan bagi jadi KPN, lepas itu apa dia (kementerian) buat sambung balik lagi setahun dua tahun, tak guna. Kita mahukan orang lain yang lebih bagus daripadanya. Kalau dia mudapun sekalipun kita tak peduli, sekurang-kurangnya bagi dia peluang dalam jangka lima tahun untuk merubah dan memperbaiki sistem polis yang sememangnya dah teruk.

“Kalau kita masih lagi mempertahankan KPN yang bersikap sebegini, saya ingat negara kita akan jadi lebih teruk daripada sekarang,” katanya lagi.

Terdahulu bercakap dalam sidang media yang sama, Senator S Ramakrishnan menggesa PDRM mengemukakan satu sistem prosedur yang berkesan bagi menangani kes tembakan oleh anggota polis.

“Walaupun KPN telah bersetuju untuk menubuhkan satu inkues tetapi perkara ini mestilah dibincangkan juga memandangkan pada tahun 2008 juga 2009 ada kes yang langsung tidak disiasat.

“Berapa banyak kes orang awam mati ditembak polis sebelum ini dan sehingga sekarang kejadian seperti ini masih berterusan sehingga melibatkan remaja berusia 14 tahun.

“Ini bukan kejadian pertama kali berlaku. Sudah banyak kali dan sehingga sekarang tiada apa-apa siasatan. Ini menunjukkan polis tidak cekap. Sepatutnya sebaik sahaja selepas tembakan berlaku, siasatan segera hendaklah dijalankan,” katanya.

Ramakrishnan bakal membentangkan usul tergempar berhubung kes kematian Aminulrasyid di Dewan Negara esok.

Menurutnya, tujuan usul berkenaan adalah bagi menyegerakan kes tersebut supaya disiasat secara profesional dan telus serta mendapat pembelaan yang sewajarnya.

Corruption and gross inefficiency make for a lethal concoction. In Malaysia everything that goes wrong is traceable to either one or both of these factors, and we Malaysians do not have far to cast our eye to see examples of enforcement that have gone awry.

Everywhere we go in Malaysia, in urban centres as well as remote rural hamlets, we see foreigners in our midst toiling away day and night at jobs that Malaysians won’t touch with a long barge pole.

It is clear that these people, the overwhelming majority are illegal, are performing a useful economic function, and it is equally obvious that we cannot do without them, such is their penetration into virtually every aspect of Malaysian life. Why, then, don’t we look the problem in the face and do something right by both the country and these illegals who are here for the long haul?

My greatest concern is the ever present threat posed by many of them to security and public order. The large concentrations of illegal Indonesians are a matter of real concern given their known propensity for criminal activities, including armed robberies. The police are doing the best they can, but the rising crime rates are signs pointing to their failure to keep serious crimes under control, in spite of protestations to the contrary by the IGP.

It is not that they do not know the cause of the problem, but they are reduced to merely treating the symptoms because of conflicting ministerial policies. With millions of people from all over Asia who have overstayed their welcome, we persist with the utterly mindless facility of granting visas on arrival to all and sundry.

I once saw a gaggle of bedraggled South Asian “tourists” swarming over an immigration counter for their right of entry under our tourism promotion campaign. Anyone who was not blind could see that Malaysia Truly Asia was a million miles from their minds.

I know that tourism is important to our economy, but what we are implementing is tantamount to an open door policy, particularly in light of a very real terrorist threat to internal, and by extension, global peace and security. Our VOA policy has earned us the kind of notoriety that we need like a hole in the head.

We are seen by human traffickers, drug smugglers, and assorted terrorists in transit as corrupt and flexible in our official transactions. “Malaysia Boleh” of the Mahathir era was not the Freudian slip that we thought. It was a true reflection of “anything goes” in our country. This is what has dragged Malaysia to its current position in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

We are perceived as a country where corruption in the public service has intruded into every level of officialdom. We may not agree with the verdict of the international community on our moral rectitude or as far as our corrupt behaviour is concerned, because it is argued by the practitioners of corruption among us that these are nothing more than perceptions.

What they forget is that while perceptions may not have any basis in fact, they are real and do influence and cloud the thinking of overseas decision makers.

Tinkering around the edges of our failed immigration policy on foreign labour is not the answer. We have to make a conscious political decision to legalise those who are already here by registering them and giving them a two year stay, renewable subject to conditions. At least in this way we know who they are. Those who are not registered will be regarded as illegal and appropriate action will then be taken.

There must be a more orderly way of dealing with this very important national issue because by leaving matters as they are, they are not going to go away. If we have a proper system of foreign worker registration, we will reduce police harassment and extortion, common complaints by these illegal workers.

We have had instances of illegal workers under detention fighting the police and other enforcement officers because they are fed up with the continual acts of extortion. The police should set up a special undercover unit to monitor police operations against these illegals to make sure that human rights abuses do not take place.

An all party parliamentary committee should be established to study the issues involved and make appropriate recommendations for implementation. (By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ/MySinchew)

mysinchew.com

A mere footnote at the bottom of a page of Malaysia’s political history or a tome on political change that recreated and revitalised a sick and openly corrupt society into a vibrant and prosperous democracy for all?

Pakatan Rakyat must decide quickly where it wants to be. On present showing, it has not a ghost of a chance to ever breach and occupy the still impregnable Putrajaya citadel, in spite of the credible 8 March 2008 electoral onslaught. It does not have to look far to find out why it is in such a sorry state. Lim Kit Siang’s warning of a “one term miracle” could well become self-fulfilling and Putra Jaya would be just a gleam in the eye if his words are not taken to heart.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders must come to terms with the reality that is Barisan Nasional. We may despise its politics of immorality, of corruption and injustice, but even the most rabid alternative political practitioners must readily concede that it is still a formidable organisation with an armoury of unsavoury tricks they have to contend with.

Remember Perak, and the bad after taste that lingers on and on. Pakatan must wake up from its euphoric pie in the sky self-induced dream that the one off massive voter handouts would be there for the asking at the next general elections. There will be no repeat performance until and unless it gets its act together. The electorate owes PR nothing. The truth is that Pakatan Rakyat owes their supporters everything.

PR leaders must lead by putting the larger interests of the nation above individual parochial party issues with their tendency to be unnecessarily divisive, emotive and controversial. Are these issues really so fundamental that they are incapable being discussed rationally without adding to the fragility of a coalition that is apparently about to be torn asunder?

I wrote some time ago about the difficulty of reconciling the conflicting claims of the many different ideological and doctrinal sacred cows represented by the PR partners, but they must direct their intellectual energies to finding a solution to what the people of multi-racial Malaysia will and will not put up with.

They must open their minds to the larger, and therefore, more relevant social, economic, political, religious and cultural concerns of our people than to insist on playing the same old race and religious cards with their declining appeal to right thinking people. These are barriers to overcome.

If PR is, as it seems, incapable of even getting to the most important item on the new national agenda, then it is offering nothing better to the people of this nation than what BN has been doing for half a century and more. More of the same is an unworthy option for a long suffering people who deserve better. PR leaders must, in all good conscience, ask themselves whether they can lead this complex and difficult nation if they themselves are apparently incapable of agreeing on basic fundamental principles of cooperative engagement to deepen their commitment to values of justice in its widest sense for every Malaysian.

If PK leaders feel that they have neither the will nor the stomach for the sacrifices they are expected to make in order to take the new national non-race based agenda forward on the long march to Putrajaya, they should come out with a straight answer that should leave the people of this country in no doubt where they stand. There is no place for personal agendas in the national scheme of things; certainly not where it is a matter of saving the people from a particularly rotten and unjust system of governance.

Pakatan Rakyat has a great deal to offer by way of a commitment to a clean corruption-intolerant administration and it deserves to be given a chance to govern Malaysia. It cannot be worse than the Umno dominated administration. But then the political game is not about sentimental nonsense. It is determined solely by the dictum “Perform or Perish”, and the PR state governments must prove to the satisfaction of the people in those states, and by extension the nation, that they can be trusted to govern good, and to govern well.

This coalition, even if it were made in heaven, could still come a cropper. PR leaders have themselves to blame in the event.

mysinchew.com

Najib’s 1Malaysia propaganda campaign, now in full swing, has taken on the uncanny appearance of a blitzkrieg that would have the Fuehrer of the Third Reich double up in the Reichstag in uncontrollable ecstasy. It really is that funny. The single-minded mindless saturation bombardment of the media, at what financial cost we will never know, has already begun to show all the tell tale signs of mental fatigue and psychological rejection. I am told that it is not unlike the metal fatigue that put a premature end to the promising start of the world’s first commercial jetliner, the Comet operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation more than four decades ago. Perhaps there is a lesson the 1Malaysia strategists could learn from history about over indulgence. There can be too much of a good thing for their own good.

I have been asking our prime minister, as indeed many others, to venture beyond sloganeering and spell out in terms that are concise and clear what he has in mind when pontificating on what appears to thinking Malaysians to be nothing more than a party dogma being shoved down their throats as part of a ploy to regain the non-Bumi electoral support. If Najib really believes that voters are going to buy his half-baked1Malaysia cake as an article of faith- that is more form than substance, he should put it to the test by going back to the country for a fresh authority or mandate to govern. His legitimacy is in serious doubt. The UMNO process of succession is open to question.

The unfortunate impression I get is that 1Malaysia is all about the pathetic charade of bonhomie and back-slapping of the ‘open house’ variety. Please do not get me wrong: I am not an unsociable sloth. I do like some people, believe it or not. My point is that if it is national unity that the admirable prime minister really wants for Malaysia’s sustainable future, then the trick is to work towards achieving smooth and seamless integration that will stand the test of time.

National unity is not a product that can be created by legislation or administrative edict or order; it is a process that requires a complete change of behaviour and attitude, a mental overhaul that can only be achieved through a dynamic social, economic and political regime that puts equality of opportunity at the very top of our national agenda. We need to put great store by equal opportunity in education in particular because to me it is immoral and ethically unacceptable to discriminate against the innocent and vulnerable young by depriving them of their rights to higher education. How, in heaven’s name can we expect them to identify themselves with the country of their birth if, in spite of their achieving more than the standards set, still fail to gain a place? A policy of exclusiveness can produce only one outcome–disaster! There is plenty of evidence to be seen in our society of the futility of pursuing this evil policy. Equal opportunity must be the cornerstone of national unity.

While I can readily understand the underlying imperatives of the New Economic Policy, I do not accept that you can justify positive discrimination except by implementing it in strict observance of its aim which is to alleviate poverty of Malaysians irrespective of ethnicity or religious leanings. But as we all know, the spirit of what was intended to be a great social leveller has from its inception been blatantly violated for the benefit of the few politically connected self-proclaimed Melayu Baru, a breed happily mired in corruption in all its manifestations.

For true national unity to emerge, we must go back to basics, revisiting the freedoms and rights guaranteed for all Malaysians. The NEP must be applied to all who need support. The draconian Internal Security Act as applied to date has no place in our society. Enact a new Anti-Terrorism Act for that specific application, and not to use it to terrorise and inflict pain and suffering on our own people. I wonder if Najib’s ideas which underpin his 1Malaysia will ever converge with the modest and legitimate expectations of our multi-cultural society.

I am inclined to believe that people should be left to their own devices, and just as water eventually finds its own level, so do people. The duty of the government is to govern in ways that put the welfare and the interests of the people above all other considerations. In effect this means a system of governance based on best universal practice that, by implication, is free from corruption which according to Transparency International is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Could the founding fathers of TI in 1993 have been thinking about our political leadership when they developed this formulation? I wonder.

About this time each year when Transparency International in Berlin releases its Corruption Perceptions Index, there are many in high places chewing their sticky, dirty fingers while keeping them crossed, hoping against hope, that the world would be kinder and Malaysia’s score on the corruption league table would come out more favourably than last year’s and all the previous years since the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index was first released in 1995. The prayers of the corrupt in government and politics have been ignored again. The predictability of it all is uncanny. The question is why are we continually perceived as corrupt, and are the perceptions justified?

The ambivalence of Tun Mahathir to corruption during his 22 year administration was never in dispute. In a perverse sort of way, he was charmingly honest and did not try to pretend that he was against corrupt practices. He was a great “in the national interest man” who saw corruption not in monochrome, but in glorious Technicolor which could even be made to look extremely attractive seen through his 20/20 Vision however sordid it is in reality.

I am sure the great visionary of all that is tallest, longest and biggest did not lose any sleep over the many shady deals involving Bank Negara and the Employees Provident Fund that, but for the grace of God and the beneficence of the milch cow that is Petronas, would have rendered us insolvent and a hostage of the IMF. He made no promises to fight corruption, and we did not expect anything from him in this respect. He was, by my definition, a corrupt man.

His successor, the one term wonder, affectionately known as Pak Lah of the “work with me and not for me” fame, was made from a different mould. A perfectly decent human being, he possessed impressive religious and moral credentials. When he declared that his top priority was to take the war against corruption into enemy territory, the country rejoiced, but it was to be short lived. A lot of white washing here and there, and a little tinkering around the edges did nothing to reduce corruption. If anything, the consensus was that corruption during Pak Lah’s watch was worse than when Mahathir held sway over us.

As Pak Lah himself admitted without saying so in so many words, there were other more pressing matters requiring his attention that it was only in the twilight of his stewardship that he woke up and realised that there was a little promise he had made that he had to fulfil. So in great haste, all he managed to do, bless the poor man, was to leave behind a less than useless legacy in the shape of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission which on present showing is useful neither to man nor beast. And that is being charitable.

The first anti-corruption public relations exercise was the setting up of the National Institute of Integrity Malaysia which, while trying its best to justify its existence, has achieved next to nothing because it is seen as being unable to focus on its mission. Institutions of themselves are not as important as what their people do inside their often magnificent buildings. Malaysia’s dismal failure to curb corruption as effectively as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, the cleanest in this region, has everything to do with the leadership in government, the Attorney-General’s chambers, the police and the MACC.

It all comes down to people in the end. Mere institutions without people of honour and integrity to lead them do not amount to anything. Remember that saying about how you can fool some people some of the time, but not all people all of the time. It is a lesson that seems to have escaped our leadership.

With one scam after another swirling around their ankles on a daily basis, our leaders, no matter what tricks they try to come up with, have all but lost their high moral ground from which to sermonise on the evils of corruption. The country is mired in corruption and every level of the service has been touched by corruption, defined as the “abuse of entrusted power for personal gain, and official corruption in our country is escalating to enormous heights because there is no political will to begin with.

The thing to remember about the Corruption Perceptions Index is that it reflects the views of the expatriate business community, resident in our country. They are the people who are sought to respond to questionnaires about corruption in our country. And they are not blind to what is going on in their dealings with the government. True, many have no direct experience of being subjected to official extortion, but they exchange stories which are the basis of their perceptions.

There were several countries that were written off as chronically and systemically corrupt and have succeeded remarkably in breaking out of the vicious cycle of corruption. Corruption is not part of our culture and yet we have allowed it to become our way of life.

We are the product of our environment and the government has a responsibility for creating an environment that makes corruption a “high risk, low return business.” But to do that the Prime Minister must lead by example and must confront corruption in all its manifestation, no matter who commits it. A real challenge for Najib if he can find some time to drop his 1Malaysia and look at corruption in the face.

I am not at all sanguine at all about our future as a nation if, by default, we look the other way when disaster is heading straight at us. We will slide further and will have for company those countries that we used to look down upon because we were cleaner. Yes, there was a time, when Tunku Abdul Rahman was prime minister, when corruption only happened in other countries and when ministers and senior Malayan Civil Service officers lived well, well within their means.

Najib must shake off all traces of corruption within our system of governance if Malaysia is to reappear on the competitiveness radar screen of countries that foreign investors feel confident to park their money. Is Najib up to the challenge? (By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ/MySinchew)

Malaysian Insider

OCT 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not disappoint. He is true to his values whatever they might be. He upholds his principles with messianic zeal. His principles are of indeterminate provenance, but Najib is not known to worry himself to distraction over such small matters. He has made many of us happy. It has nothing to do with his 1 Malaysia vision that he seems incapable of articulating to save his life, let alone convincing Malaysians who have decided that half a century of untruths and specious, convoluted political and social arguments should be more than enough for even the most sanguine of them.

Najib has made us happy not because in a fit of mental aberration or misplaced exuberance he has added to his fantasy world the even a more preposterous 1 World vision that flashed across his mind. I bet it was a very brief moment in time. Najib has made us deliriously happy because he has just done something blatantly cynical to confirm what we have known all along about his attitude to corruption. Najib does not disappoint.

His choice of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as the BN candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election has left absolutely no doubt in our minds about Najib’s real attitude to corruption. He, ever the pragmatic, suave man about town leader of a country already systematically mired in corruption, sees it as nothing more that a necessary evil. If you cannot fight it, join it.

His matter of fact response that “Even those convicted by the courts get another chance” must surely single him out, like a sore thumb even among the corrupt leaders of 1 Malaysia, as someone totally devoid of ethical values. It also points to a complete lack of the political will to curb corrupt practices in our country. The gap between his rhetoric and constructive action against corruption is growing ever wider under Najib. Just in case he forgets, the Kuala Lumpur-based diplomatic corps and the wider international community are watching this development with some concern. Najib does not disappoint.

Bagan Pinang is a little backwater of a community on the Negri Sembilan coast. However, the choice of a candidate that even Umno, the party that sits well with corruption and takes it in its stride, was constrained to discipline marks a low point indeed. The much detested and reviled corruption-tainted and Isa has now been declared perfectly “kosher” to represent the country’s ruling coalition. Politics is indeed the art of the possible.

Can we trust a government that is prepared to trade integrity? And for a rural state assembly seat which, the winning or losing of which, is not going to have a material effect on the political fate of BN in overall terms? I, unlike Najib, do not subscribe to the second chance dispensation because political corruption will ravage national values and systems. Are we blind to the fact that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s special brand of corrupt political stewardship, now still in place unfortunately, that has stifled our potential for dynamic growth, and kept us, in spite of the resources at our disposal, at the wrong end of the global competitiveness league table?

Political corruption if not dealt with decisively will destroy our nation because the national decision-making processes will be distorted and manipulated. “State capture” by corrupt elements will be the end result. We cannot allow the country’s future to be hijacked by unprincipled politicians, by default. Fighting corruption is our individual and collective responsibility as citizens. It cannot be left to the tender mercies of the corrupt in the corridors of power.

Now that Najib has dropped all pretence of queasiness about bedding down with corruption, he could do us all a big favour and save taxpayers a lot of money by closing down the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Institute of Integrity and all the other related agencies because he has made his position on corruption so clear. They are of no use to man or beast.

And while we are about it, Najib may want to propose a general amnesty for all who have been convicted of corruption as well as those who have committed corrupt acts, but lucky enough not to be caught. This is totally consistent with his belief that the corrupt deserve a second chance, an official passport to Najib’s 1 Malaysia where anything goes and the devil looks after his own. Najib does not disappoint.

Malaysians are now being treated to a display of arrogance unprecedented in the history of BN administration, and the choice of Isa, in all the circumstances, flies in the face of what little is left that is decent and honourable in our national life, worth preserving. Even by Umno’s and, by extension, Najib’s own standards, this is a very low point, and that is putting it charitably. Najib does not disappoint.

Little Bagan Pinang will without a doubt deliver the seat that Najib so devoutly yearns to have. He needs it to prop his shaky leadership. Bagan Pinang will in the end be remembered in history as the place where Umno lost its moral bearing, credibility and legitimacy to lead the Malays. Umno’s ugly nakedness in surrendering ethical values and principles to political expediency is here for all to see: it will be its undoing. Najib does not disappoint. He never does!

mysinchew.com

Transparency International (TI) is the only international non-governmental organisation specialised in curbing corruption, but the TI-Malaysia is currently having a dispute. As a monitoring organisation, it is unable to set a good example but has caused unnecessary quarrels. How is it going to fight corruption and play its role well?

TI was established in 1993 and it has set up branches in 120 countries. Its objective is to bring incorruptible people from different governments, businesses and societies together through its branches in order to create change towards “a world free of corruption”.

Malaysia is facing a serious corruption and the efficiency of law enforcement units is not satisfactory. The country is in need of an non-governmental organisation to call on people with conscience to fight corruption together with the domestic social forces. The split of the organisation has dealt a blow to the followers’ morale and reflected that even such a noble organisation is unable to escape from personnel issues.

It is ironic that in the earlier released Global Corruption Report (GCR) 2009, TI revealed the complex relationships among political party members, officials and entrepreneurs in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal. It also described the common thread running through politics, the civil service and private sector as a “revolving door”. And now, we can see that the leadership of TI-Malaysia is in fact “complicated”, too.

Datuk Paul Low, who has resigned as President of TI-Malaysia, is a former MCA life member. He resigned from MCA on 19 June this year after he was questioned by DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang. Low had joined MCA in 1991, which means that, he had a political background when he was the President of TI-Malaysia. The leader of an anti-corruption organisation must transcend politics so he will have no scruples in performing his duty. TI-Malaysia has failed to ensure that MCA leaders are not involving in corruption, especially when MCA leaders are also cabinet ministers.

Just like an unwritten code of Sin Chew Daily, journalists are not allowed to join any political party, so as not to affect fairness and neutrality of news reporting. How is a journalist with a political stand going to play the “Fourth Estate” role? Similar to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials and the police, they should transcend politics in order to professionally perform their duties.

When Low was appointed as a PKFZ task force member by the Transport Minister on 10 June and the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Administration and Corporate Governance, he was still a MCA member. It might not necessarily affect his profession, but it would trigger a discussion.

On the other hand, TI-Malaysia founder Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim has joined DAP on 23 Aug last year and sworn in as a DAP senator in July this year. Based on the same principle, he should have resigned earlier.

Politics has invaded many areas and organisations, causing many unnecessary disputes and troubles. Hopefully, TI-Malaysia may draw a line between the organisation and politics as soon as possible to defend its credibility and professionally, return to its anti-corruption duty. (By LIM SUE GOAN/Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily)