By Sim Kwang Yang
Eleven public officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as some businessmen have been charged in court for alleged corrupt practices as reported in the Auditor General’s report.
Visibly pleased during an official visit to the Anti-Corruption Agency HQ, the PM praised the management and men of the agency for their good work, and encouraged them to go after the corrupt, no matter what their rank and status.
Have these high-profile anti-graft cases restored the confidence of the ordinary street-wise citizens, especially those who live and work in large urban centres? Has the BN government therefore displayed their political will to rid the nation of this crippling scourge forever? The answer must be an emphatic “no”!
Even the very pro-government national daily, the New Straits Times, shares my scepticism. In an editorial that appeared on 25.10.2007 under the title “Delivering the goods”, the paper has this to say:
“As it is, while there has been a very conspicuous campaign to curb corruption, this has not been matched by public progress reports in terms of proven cases, litigations, and court hearings. In the fight against corruption, the bureaucratic preference for washing the dirty linen behind closed doors should not apply. When the seeming reluctance to do anything which can be construed as undermining the morale of the civil service is taken as an indication of the weakness of enforcement and the lack of political will, it can only reinforce the perception the anti-corruption drive has been long on rhetoric and short on delivery.”
“The public sign that the ACA is astir, building momentum and prepared to be more forthcoming about its doings bode well. This is because it is the greater risk of being exposed and caught that is such a crucial element in any successful anti-corruption campaign.”
The editorial has a point. Anti-corruption cases should be highlighted in the press, until out of fear of shame, public officials will abstain from the temptation of palm-greasing at all times. But that alone is far from being truly effective in tackling the problem of graft, that has sunk such deep roots into our body politic.
Strike at the root cause
The root of corruption is human greed, operating freely under a cloud of bad governance and lack of transparency, starting from the very top level. Punishing mid-level civil servants while powerful politicians continue to get fabulously rich is tantamount to curing the symptoms, and not striking at the root cause of the problem. It can be seen as merely finding scapegoats for this national malaise.
In his column article entitled “Shape up, scapegoats won’t do”, that appeared in the NST on Oct 21, former president of Transparency International Malaysia president Tunku Abdul Aziz has this to say:
“Two Marine Department officers have been made scapegoats (in the Mersing Tioman ferry tragedy) and suspended pending investigation. If we think that is going to solve or transform the deeply embedded culture of impunity, then we have to think again.”
Describing the Transport Ministry as ‘dysfunctional’, Tunku Abdul Aziz claims that it is not important to know how many ferries and express coaches are operating on our roads and in our waters without a valid license and a certificate of fitness.
“What is relevant to us is why the ministry has allowed this totally unacceptable state of affairs to become its management centrepiece. The implication of this public display of institutional paralysis and incompetence for the nation’s credibility are a great deal more serious than we can imagine, apart from the more immediate negative impact on the tourism-related earnings.”
Describing Malaysia as an “over-regulated and under-enforced country, he does put his finger on the heart of the matter. The more laws there are to regulate and control the life of the citizens, the greater is the opportunity for graft. The worldly-wise and cynical private citizens have long realised that for every application to the government to do any business of any sort, there is always a greedy palm begging to be greased. It is that bad.
As long as corrupt public officials are prepared to look the other way, using the mountains of regulations within their jurisdiction as weapons for what amounts to extort for rent from the private sector, illegal businesses will continue to thrive, with dire consequences.
But Tunku Abdul Aziz seems to have missed the mark when he laments that we are a first-rate nation run by third-rate bureaucrats. (I emphasise the word “seems” because Tunku Abdul Aziz cannot write on the NST as freely as I can on Malaysiakini.) The bureaucrats do more than following the example of their political masters; they work in the aura of opacity in the nation’s public life created by their political masters in the first place – like fish swimming in murky water!
Ask any citizen with a healthy dose of cynicism and access to privileged information how many federal ministers, state mentri besars, state chief ministers, state executive councillors, state ministers in Sarawak and Sabah, or any elected representatives for that matter, can be described as squeaky clean like a whistle, and you will hear a sneering grunt that deafens the ear.
So far, the only check against corruption among the nation’s most powerful individuals is the requirement for them to declare their personal assets to the PM.
Playing Machiavellian games
This requirement is totally useless and ineffective. Politicians’ self-enriching businesses through abuse of power can be hidden deeply in shares held by a proxy or a nominee. We are not sure also whether the declaration will also be accompanied by a statement of how those assets are acquired. What is certain is that the declaration will never be made public. Besides, does the PM have to declare his personal assets as well?
Then again, we know that the ACA is answerable to the PM in the ultimate analysis. It has become a powerful political tool in the hands of the PM, for him to play Machiavellian games with his political allies and underlings.
Take the CM of my home state Sarawak for instance. His family has gotten very rich and his family business, through Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS), dominates the business sector in Sarawak. Since the revelation by a Japanese newspaper about the CM’s alleged involvement in corrupt practices in timber deals has come to light, police reports and reports to the ACA have been made by PKR leaders. So far, there has been no progress report from ACA, and cynical citizens can expect none.
Last year, burglars broke into the home of a Sarawak assistant minister and made off with something like RM400,000 in cash and kind. The burning question on the net in Sarawak is: how can a mere assistant minister get so rich? How rich are the full state ministers, really? I insist that such questions are morally, politically, and legally valid in Malaysia.
In short, institutionally, we give too much burden to the PM for arresting corruption at very high places. If he really goes after the really big sharks, his days as PM may be numbered.
What we need is not the good intentions or personal wisdom of any one PM, but long-range institutional changes.
In the short term, the ACA must be given the sort of independence that frees the agency from all political influence, perhaps by making them answerable directly to the parliament. Ideally, the Public Accounts Committee of the Dewan Rakyat (which examines the Auditor General’s Report annually) ought to be chaired by a member of the opposition. We need laws to protect whistle-blowers, instituting witness protection programmes if necessary.
In the long-term, we need to have all the healthy institutions of a truly democratic country in place. If we cast our glance around the world, we can observe that corruption is least where the polities are the most democratic – with the exceptions of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Vision of taking power
What the enlightened readers and letter-writers on Malaysiakini have been clamouring for many years is right; Malaysia needs to be more democratic. And one of the better consequences of a democratic way of life could be the diminishing and eventual eradication of corruption at all levels.
We need to fulfil the doctrine of separation of powers between the three branches of government. We need a judiciary that is independent and courageous, and the integrity of our judges must be beyond reproach. We need a much freer press than the quasi-government bulletin boards that we call the “national dailies”.
We also need our opposition parties to think more like the opposition parties of a liberal developed democracy, to harbour the eternal vision of taking power at both the federal and state levels.
Above all, we need an enlightened citizenry who will know how to vote for the right reasons.
Without all that changes, Umno will still be in power in another 50 years, and the lame-duck ACA will still be prosecuting the small fry under the cynical but helpless gaze of our children and grandchildren.
This article was first published in Malaysiakini on October 27, 2007, and has been edited for Hornbill Unleashed.
Exactly how corrupt are we?
Statistics is a good starting point in any analysis.
If one were to make a simple quantitative statement, for instance, that 50% of our policemen, civil servants, politicians or whatever, are corrupt, several other conclusions will inevitably flow from that statement. Since these policemen, civil servants, politicians or whatever are drawn from a common population pool, what one is also saying, without directly expressing it, is that a similar proportion of the whole populace is corrupt.
In its simplest analogy, it would suggest that, if you are sitting at a coffee shop with a friend, a strong possibility exists that one of you is a corrupt person! How valid would such a statement be?
Before going any further, it will be useful to define the word “corrupt”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as:
1. willing to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain,
2. evil or morally depraved,
3. rotten or putrid.
And how exactly are we to quantify corruption? This is where a self-rationalisation thought process often comes into play. It does not depend only on the absolute definition of the word “corruption”. More relevant is our individual interpretion of “corruption”, what it actually means to us, in our way of daily thinking.
Is a person who demands a fifty dollar bribe corrupt? Or is that definition reserved only for those who do things on a large scale, like the multi-million dollar scandals now being investigated in the country? And who is the corrupt person, the person accepting the money, or the person who encourages or actively promotes corruption by offering it? Is one of them more corrupt that the other, or are they both equally corrupt?
I once remember being stopped for speeding on the Penang bridge, in the late Eighties while the Telethon was on. I was, in fact, speeding – no two ways about it. The policemen did not actually produce the book to give me a ticket. Instead, he stood there, hummed and hawed, probably hoping I would initiate what could become a profitable transaction for him.
He was quite distinctly disconcerted when I told him bluntly that if he had evidence that I was speeding, he should give me a ticket. He hummed and hawed, again, while two of his colleagues waiting along the curb behind my car, laughed quietly. Embarrassed, the policemen waved me away, warning me to be more careful next time. I thanked him, thanked my lucky stars too, and left.
I do not relate this incident to profess a “holier than thou” attitude or whatever. I am human like all other Malaysians, with my own strengths and weaknesses. I live a simple uncomplicated life in a small town. But I have never, and will never, offer or accept a bribe. A matter of principle, if you like.
For all that, like all Malaysians, I too would prefer to have as little to do as possible with bureaucrats and bureaucracy. Having to turn up in court in some distant place, quite apart from it taking up a day or two of my life, would almost inevitably mean hanging about in the courthouse for hours on end, waiting for my case to be called. Or, as it happens all too frequently, find out that the case has been postponed, and have to go through the whole business all over again!
Here, the problem starts, usually with “My God, such a waste of time! Maximum fine, about M$300. So why make a fuss, just give the fellow fifty bucks and get it over and done with. This way cheaper also.” Hi-faluting matters such as Time-Cost Management come into play to justify our decision, and we take the soft option and offer the policement a few bucks, and call it quits.
True, Time-Cost Management does suggest a need to minimise loss and maximise profit – in the business context. But, I ask myself, does morality or ethical concepts have to be jettisoned in deference to this mantra?
Take theft, for example. In strictly legal terms, a thief is a thief is a thief. A person who steals (shop-lifting is just a euphemism) something worth a few thousand dollars is no less a thief than one who steals a practically worthless item from a wayside stall. In fact, taking small things like pens, pencils and stationery from the office one works in is also theft!
Where do we draw the line before we lapse, betray ourselves and become hypocrites? Can we expect others to do things we are unwilling or unable to do because we find it inconvenient? Can we criticise or villify others for their flaws, yet justify, in ourselves, the very same flaws? Does that not makes us the worse for it, since it makes us hypocrites too?
What annoys me is the moral superiority that so many people bring to this issue. They are ‘outraged’ at the ‘despicable behaviour’ of the MPs. According to some, the British public rightly wants to see MPs publically executed (I presume that this is just rhetoric). But I have little doubt that many of those taking the moral high ground condemn themselves with their own words.
Do they ever illegally copy music?
Do they ever fiddle their work expenses?
Do they claim for things that are against the spirit if not the letter of their company’s guidelines?
If so, have they not have used the system in exactly the same way as many British MPs did if no rules were being broken?
I do not doubt that in all the angry rhetoric that has been flying around there have been bucket loads of hypocrisy. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
The current Malaysian scandals invite us all, amongst other things, to look again at our own behaviour and to make sure that it is straight before we start hurling abuse at others for doing things that have uncomfortable analogies to things that we ourselves do.
I think that the unceasing moral outrage would be more palatable if it were to be accompanied by more humility, introspection, and a desire to set our own houses in order.
Comment by S. Menon — November 18, 2009 @ 10:45 PM |
WHY TALK ABOUT CORRUPTION AND SO FORTH -
WHEN YOU CAN GETAWAY WITH MURDER -
DON`T YOU THINK ASKING THE EXECUTIVE
TO CUT THEIR NOSE AND SPIKE THEIR FACE
AWSOME????????????????????????????????
Comment by shintarogeronimo@gmail.com — November 18, 2009 @ 12:48 PM |
Well written article. Everything on corruption is there – what, why, where and how.
My simple explanation is this – the government allows corruption to fester since the takers are the Malays who are BN supporters. Actions against this group will mean the weakening on BN itself.
When the PM and his entire cabinet, the police, the AG chambers, civil service, local government and Judiciary are corrupted what then is the remedy.
Just this: Change the government, send the corrupted AG, IGP and Chief Judge to jail. Freeze their bank accounts. Return the spoils of war to the people.
If BN continues to stay in power, this country is doomed for sure. It is men of conscience within BN itself (in Sabah and Sarawak) who must take a stand, withdraw their support for the government and join hands with the reformers in the Opposition.
Comment by Libra — November 18, 2009 @ 8:54 AM |
All the official efforts to fight corruption is only symptomatic and not real bcos corruption starts from the top and as pointed out never has a top gun been found guilty of corruption! So we have this culture of impunity.. “My boss is doing it why shouldnt I” That is why you see blatant coruption going on in all govt depts and at all levels. Nowadays they dont even be bothered to be subtle when wanting something from you to get things done.
Comment by Swipenter — November 18, 2009 @ 8:40 AM |
TDM = Father of Corruption, why still allow to roam freely?
Comment by Iskandar Mustapha — November 18, 2009 @ 3:25 AM |