Razaleigh’s pointer to eradicating corruption in politics
Written by Koon Yew Yin, CPI
On Saturday, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah spilled the beans on some of the ways in which corruption was carried out and money changed hands in Malaysia.
In his speech at the book launch of ‘The Shafee Yahaya Story – Estate Boy to ACA Chief’, Razaleigh said corruption appears to have its root cause in our political parties. He identified some of the most prominent areas as tender inflation, the refurbishment of defence equipment and government procurement.
This is not the first, and I hope not the last time that the former finance minister speaks plainly on how our political system has broken down in a way that cannot be salvaged by piecemeal reform, how our public institutions have become corrupt, biased and inefficient because of money and politics (most disturbingly by racial politics), and how our economy has stagnated.
Another minister, this one in the current cabinet – the political novice Idris Jala – let the cat out of the bag that Malaysia faced bankruptcy if its finances should continue to be mismanaged.
Against this backdrop, the clock is fast ticking to 2020. Less than 10 years away is our Vision 2020 dream to be a fully developed country in all respects.
However, unless some very definite action is taken on the political front, not only will we fail to reach the status of a successful nation even as defined by narrow economic measurements such as the GDP (which incidentally gives no clue on how income is distributed) we could well become a failed state in other important respects.
Corruption will be our downfall
Razaleigh’s proposition that corruption is “the single biggest threat to our nation” is worth repeating. “In our economy, corruption is the root of our inability to make the economic leap that we know we are capable of,” he lamented.
He had similarly opined in March that “confidence is at an all time low” and the country was suffering from “debilitating levels of brain and capital drain”. In other words, human capital and financial capital are fleeing the country.
I have written before about Razaleigh’s keynote address to the Perak Academy where he spoke on what I called his ‘10 Golden Political Principles’ (see my earlier article). He reiterated some of the points he made earlier in Ipoh once again in his speech five days ago.
In discussions on the subject with many friends, we reached a consensus that the principles highlighted by Razaleigh are relevant to meeting the challenges of the present and future, and deserving of full support from thinking Malaysians.
Here, I would like to elaborate on No.4 of Razaleigh’s 10-principle primer. The fourth principle reads “It shall be the duty of all political parties to adhere to the objectives of public service and refrain from involvement in business, and ensure the separation of business from political parties.”
