At the mercy of politicians and businessmen
When the economy collapses and we suffer, they can switch off the game and go on with their lives elsewhere
CT Ali, FMT
Is politics in Malaysia under the control of big business? Are big business and politics one and the same? Does big business in Malaysia share political power with Barisan Nasional? In a one-party state like Malaysia was until recently, is it true to say that it is normal for big business to be part and parcel of politics? Now that Malaysia is effectively a two-party state, when choose one political party over another, are we also choosing the big businesses associated with it?
The answer to these questions depends on who is doing the questioning and who is doing the answering, but we can be sure that on both sides of the political divide big business is already entrenched, some with feet planted firmly on both sides with everybody scratching each other’s back. Wealth distribution be dammed! Dishonesty and criminality will prevail!
There seems to be no concern that our nation is heading towards economic collapse caused by the powerful in politics and business.
Why should there be any concern? When the economy collapses, Rosmah will still be able to buy her Hermes handbags. The insanely wealthy businessmen and politicians will simply pack their bags and move to London or places unknown where their riches are parked. And the Malaysian public can go and fly kites for all they care.
For the Umno-led BN government and their rich cronies, watching this nation of ours go down the drain would be like watching it all happening in a video game. We suffer , but they just switch off the game and go on with their lives elsewhere.
There was a time, a few decades back, when politicians got rich the old way—by taking bribes from anybody who asked them for favours—businessmen who wanted business opportunities or even ordinary citizens needing things done. These bribes were given through intermediaries, trusted family members, cronies or front men. Soon these politicians began cut out the middlemen and started to take bribes direct from the giver, furtively. And all was still good because it was in everybody’s interest to keep quiet.
But as greed overcame any sense of propriety and confidence in their ability to escape censure or arrest increased, they began to throw caution to the wind.
After a while the sums required by the politicians got bigger (there was just so much for even the towkays to pay) and they started looking for themselves at tenders and negotiated projects, privatisations, IPPs and the many other business opportunities on offer because of the NEP and Ketuanan Melayu policies of the federal government.
Everything started to shift into a frenzy of pillaging and plundering of our nation’s wealth. Now it was more profitable for politicians to involve themselves in business equities and operations and that meant creating companies with nominees, proxies and complex holdings arrangements—all made worthwhile because the amounts to be made ran into the millions if not billions of ringgit. Even Umno and their coalition partners got into the act by creating their own vehicles for their shares of the loot.
