Corruption and competitiveness cannot co-exist
We in Malaysia operate in a corruption friendly environment where corrupt practices are becoming a way of life. Our public officials, rightly or wrongly, are perceived to be on the take.
By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ, MySinchew
MALAYSIA is replete with laws. You name them, and we have them. What we do not have, we produce them instantly, well, almost, in our Barisan Nasional dominated parliament where MPs are not encouraged to study and discuss bills being tabled too carefully.
We also, it is claimed, have the best legal framework, rules, regulations and procedures. And we also have the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Abdullah Badawi’s after thought farewell gift to a nation that has had to put up with decades of unbridled government corruption. In the nature of things, it is not polite to look a gift horse in the mouth. Unlike Midas who turned everything he touched into gold, Pak Lah turned most things he touched into base metal. The MACC is a prime example of the Badawi touch.
Even with the MACC and its new-found “independence”, we remain a thoroughly corrupt country where corruption is unofficially tolerated, and no one particularly wants to know how instant wealth is acquired. In a society such as ours where money, however obtained, is worshipped and a person with money is revered, it is not surprising that unethical public behaviour has become the norm in the corridors of power.
You do not need to take my word for it: independent international surveys, year in and year out arrive at the same conclusion. Malaysia lags far behind Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. When compared with Singapore or even Hong Kong, we are inferior on every indicator. There is, I know, at least one government agency that has undertaken a survey of its own to show that foreign surveys are biased and, therefore, unreliable. Naturally, the results are enormously flattering, but Malaysians and the world at large are more savvy than Malaysian functionaries are prepared to concede.
We are, let us not forget, dealing with well-established, professional and highly respected international survey organisations that have no rhyme or reason to show Malaysia in a bad light. The degree of unanimity among all of them, year in and year out, is remarkable.
There appears to be an official obsession to have Malaysia held up as a shining example of a country that is to be admired for its good governance, to the point of wasting large sums of money on a massive exercise in self-deception to show what great universities we have in Malaysia.
Unfortunately, this obsessive desire for greatness is not matched by the application of appropriate policies to ensure Malaysia remains competitive in global terms.
If we lose our competitive position because we are corrupt and lack integrity, we are putting our future as a nation at risk. Corruption kills competition, breeds inefficiency, distorts our decision-making processes and promotes social and political instability in the long run. I believe that in societies where integrity is firmly entrenched, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, corruption is kept firmly under control. Malaysia has become, under successive administrations, notably the Mahathir administration, a cosy and comfortable incubator of all that is corrupt and unethical in our society.
It is not at all surprising that what began as petty corruption limited to “duit kopi” has today developed into a growth industry. It has become systemic and years of co-existing with this most debilitating of the social diseases has dulled our conscience and sense of self-worth. Fighting corruption is too important to be left to the care and tender mercies of any government agency, let alone the MACC whose record to date has left many of us wondering whether it is not another one of Badawi’s sick creations . It is our fight, after all, and we should keep an eagle eye on the corruption front.
We in Malaysia operate in a corruption friendly environment where corrupt practices are becoming a way of life. Our public officials, rightly or wrongly, are perceived to be on the take. Every level of the civil service, including the police, has been touch by corruption. This is not saying that every police officer or district officer is corrupt. Most are honest, decent servants of the King. Years of Mahathirism have, however, damaged many of our important institutions.
Corruption has weakened our capacity to enforce our laws, and there is evidence of this fact everywhere – from the thousands of illegal immigrants with false documents, Mykads and work permits who know that they can work their way out of trouble by the simple expedient of “buat selesai”. We have slowly but surely lost ground to lawlessness because people employed and entrusted to carry out their duties have allowed themselves to be seduced by easy money.
It is interesting to note that the government has shown, in important law and order and corruption issues, it has no stomach to confront them decisively. Just as it is true on the implementation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct commission that Abdullah Badawi surrendered to police pressure without a whimper, it is also true that what would have been an effective legal provision to call people suspected of corruption to account for their ill-gotten wealth has been deliberately omitted. The reason is not far to seek. We would need more prison space. It is argued that there is already a money laundering act in the law, but that is a totally different kettle of fish, and the failure on the part of the government to incorporate this provision in our laws (that Singapore and Hong Kong consider essential and have in their arsenal) smells a little fishy. I wonder if our “People’s Prime Minister” has the political will to act against the corrupt in his administration.
