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By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright October 2022
Malaysia now has a reputation for being one of the most corrupt in the world thanks to UMNO leadership one of whom is now in jail.
This party is riddled with corruption and learned opinions suggest, Tun Mahathir included, there is no easy way to cure the disease that has spread wide and deep like an aggressive cancer within the organisation that the best solution left is to help bury it for good.
We are sure there are some sincere and clean individuals within the party mostly at the grassroots who have devoted their lives for the betterment of the Malays.
However, among the higher echelons we suspect there are indeed very few who are as sincere as those in the lower rungs of the party.
All you need to know is evident in cases after cases brought to court. The charges of corruption brought against UMNO leaders involved billions. In on case alone many current and former UMNO leaders were alleged to have received bribes from one company.
That's one single company that we know of that have come forward to testify that they have offered hundreds of millions to party leaders and we are sure there must be others in the last 60 over years who had helped line the pockets of UMNO politicians at the expense of the country.
A culture of greed is at the root of all corruption within UMNO. When greed becomes a culture it affects ideas, thoughts, beliefs, customs, norms, mores, values and social behaviour of the people in a given organisation like UMNO or a society like ours that has been misled by the party leaders.
In such organisations or societies greed becomes normal, is routinely practised, repeated, reproduced, institutionalised even worshipped by the people.
In other words, corruption becomes an acceptable or a normal way of life.
Some of those who have been able to accumulate massive wealth illicitly in such societies particularly in an organisation like UMNO are idolised or even worshipped.
Nowhere is the culture of greed more visible than in UMNO where it has hardened itself into the social fabric of the organisation that in turn is used to relate to and justify every political and economic move.
Tun Dr. Mahathir in his recent blog stated that UMNO has shifted to become a party of corruptors in total — from the top leadership all the way down to the grassroots.
He said "UMNO ’s top echelons are now recognised worldwide as corruptors, stealers of billions of public monies, power abusers, pests that crippled governance and UMNO itself.” - Daily Express
In fact the cases of Najib and his wife are the best examples where the spirit of accumulating unlimited wealth at any cost has become part and parcel of their daily life.
They are accepted by UMNO supporters as role models by almost everyone in the party where illicit wealth is acceptable to everyone.
UMNO members have been led to believe that greed besides bringing them unlimited wealth is actually good for the economy and politics.
Also, for many, UMNO has been reinterpreted to mean "Unlimited Money and Opportunities" for members to enrich themselves.
In addition, with UMNO's culture of greed in place political positions are considered to be an opportunity for self-enrichment, and no longer meant to be a way to serve the public at large.
One UMNO MP goes to the extent of publicly announcing that stealing is not wrong. It's wrong he said only when one gets caught in the act! Look at how they justify their criminal actions.
In UMNO it is fine if you steal as long as you're not caught when committing the crime. The common belief in UMNO is that everyone in positions of power is on the take.
For example, UKLB executives had revealed in court a long list of UMNO leaders to whom they channelled money to in sealed plain envelopes delivered to homes of party stalwarts, over the years to ensure that they get government contracts.
The total amount of public funds siphoned off goes into billions. 1MDB is just one case that we know well that made Malaysia the most corrupted in the world, thanks to UMNO. There are many more under investigations and most are related to UMNO ministers or their cronies.
For Tun Dr Mahathir, Umno which he concluded as being “totally corrupt”, believes that the conviction and jailing of Najib Razak for embezzling public funds through 1MDB subsidiary will not likely cleanse the party of corruption.
Tun Mahathir observes that UMNO leaders have rallied behind Najib even though the Federal Court upheld a High Court ruling that found the latter guilty beyond reasonable doubt. For Tun it clearly indicates that UMNO is rotten to the core.
Thus the best solution is to bury the party for good, once and for all. If they were back in power they would return to their old ways because habits for humans including UMNO members, are hard to let go off easily.
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