Malaysia’s ‘knee’ and ‘swing’ in need of a fix

By Thomas Soon, The Edge

ETHICS and integrity among politicians and corporate executives should be as strict as a particular rule in golf by which if the player causes the ball at rest to move before it is struck, he shall be penalised one stroke.

Sadly, the state of governance, be it in the corporate or public sector, is far removed from the world of professional golf.

The public and corporate sectors are filled to the brim with "buayas" or at least that is the perception, and one suspects the perception is very much close to reality because there aren't enough checks and balances.

A "buaya" (literally "crocodile") is a uniquely unflattering Malaysian term used to describe amateur and social golfers who submit a higher-than-deserved handicap or who have no qualms in cutting a few strokes off the score card in the absence of official monitoring.

Often times, only the golfer himself or herself would have realised that the ball had moved from its position at rest.

Yet there have been many cases of professional players penalising himself and alerting the officials of what he had done, even though it had been done quite unintentionally.

On the other hand, don't a lot of corporate figures and social golfers, be it in Malaysia or overseas, intentionally lose a round of golf towards securing contracts?

The scandalous Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project and the allegations over the award of contracts to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) component parties in Selangor make people cringe about the state of governance.

The powers-that-be must get to the bottom of the PKFZ controversy. As far as the public is concerned, the project has gone awry due to the involvement of many a politician. Any wrong must be made right.

Companies' boards must comprise knowledgeable people, not former politicians or near-octogenarians.

If it is true too that PR component parties are influencing and getting public contracts to fund their political activities, then perhaps the ruling and opposition parties have a common agenda to meet towards formulating a more transparent system.

If not, a unity government may not be a bad idea after all. At least then, politics won't factor in as a discord that curbs foreign investments in the country, eh? They just need to be well connected in the country.

What hope does the country have if all political parties were doing the same things? What alternative government could the country have?

As far as people are concerned, the onus is on politicians to disprove such allegations, contrary to that suggested by the Menteri Besar of Selangor, who wants clear evidence first.

Until and unless he brings evidence to the contrary, the damage is as good as done for PR. A matter for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to look into?

Also Parti Keadilan Rakyat officials are openly and unashamedly asking for municipal council presidents' posts to be given to political parties. For what, one may ask? So that contracts can be given out to them?

The country's political parties operate in an opaque system of fund raising — a system which could well be the root cause of many ills in the economic and political spheres.

Equally insidious to political parties getting funded via such a means, it is often wondered how much of that money ends up in the pockets of individual politicians and their business associates.

An obvious implication of such a system is the abuse and the marked-up cost of government contracts. "Buayas" know no boundary.

In the absence of any proper check and balance, there is nothing to prevent political parties and the politically well-connected individuals from abusing government procurement or exerting  unethical influence over the corporate sector and vice versa.

The inaugural corporate governance week organised by the Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia last week could not have come at a better time.

But how many government officials, if any at all, attended any of the forums?

Did any Port Klang Authority (PKA) officials participate in it? They would have learnt a thing or two about the crucial issues of governance, or could have imparted some of the insights and failures within PKA itself that others could have learnt from.

In the amazing world of golf, Tiger Woods knew his system (his knee) was broken and he had it fixed and practised and practised on an adjusted swing.

In his comeback since early this year from an eight-month hiatus, he has won twice, including the amazing and almost anti-climactic Memorial Tournament recently.

Our system is in need of a fix. What swing changes does the country need to make? Who will do it?

Now, who is betting against Tiger securing his 68th PGA Tour victory and his 15th major in this weekend's US Open — in hot pursuit of living legend Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors (73 tour titles)?