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By P Gunasegaram. Copyright March 2023
At the end of last month, I set out 10 overdue priorities for PM Anwar Ibrahim, of which the top one on the list was rooting out corruption and patronage. Anwar himself identified corruption as the major problem facing the country.
At a recent function, he described corruption as the number one issue, correctly naming it as the main threat to Malay survival and the health of the country. He said: “People can harp on the issue of race and religion but, to me, it’s completely irrelevant. It’s an attempt by political leaders to hijack and distract the people from the central issues of governance in this country.
“... Malay survival is being threatened by a corrupt system, a greedy coterie of leaders who have been stealing public funds from this country. We will have to continue to work together to ensure we save the country from endemic corruption.” (The Star)
Those are strong words, especially “a greedy coterie of leaders who have been stealing public funds from this country”. That brings to mind the most infamous of them all, the stealing of billions of ringgit of between US$4 billion and US$8billion from so-called national strategic development company, 1MDB.
But how is Anwar going to do it given that it is sleeping with the most corrupt party that the country has known - Umno? To add insult to injury, one sitting deputy prime minister, Umno president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is facing 47 corruption-related charges.
Some 40 other charges were dismissed but the prosecution is appealing the court decision. How weird is that - appealing charges dropped against the DPM? And how confident are we that the attorney general’s chambers will act fairly and fearlessly in prosecuting the existing cases?
But the rot had set in much earlier. From the time Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister in 1981 the level of patronage - often thinly disguised corruption - grew to astronomical heights through schemes such as privatisation, which some cynically called “piratisation”.
Through this mechanism profitable areas such as electricity generation were privatised, water services contracted out and toll road concessions given out willy-nilly, amongst others, making instant billionaires and multi-millionaires of some at the public’s expense through higher charges.
There were abundant contracts, many of which were not through open bidding but directly negotiated, opening up avenues for overstated contract values and favourable terms for the contractors. Businesses like numbers forecast operations and mobile phone services went largely to cronies of the leadership.
Most of the contracts and deals were favourable to the other parties, cultivating a patronage system where those receiving the favours funded the government political parties and even gave benefits in kind and money to top officials.
Even Umno divisional leaders, who are often party delegates, were targeted for favours, for example some RM30 billion financing for them sourced from the Employees Provident Fund and guaranteed through government land securities under the private finance initiative scheme.
If one thought that corruption prevailed only in the government sector, they are wrong for giving is as much an offence as receiving. When employees in both government and the private sector see this they too want to get rich quick.
Oh, so you want to start a coffee shop? asks a council officer. What’s in it for me? I see your pub makes a lot of money, why not give me some, I will look the other way , an enforcement officer says.
Caught for beating the traffic lights or driving while having one too many. No problem. Apa macam? Comes the question. Anything can be settled, for a price, of course.
And the disease spreads to the private sector - don’t forget they have purchases, contracts, and services. What’s a few dollars I take from our suppliers or drink and dine with them? My boss does it all the time too.
And so like an insidious virulent cancer, corruption spreads to every cell of our lives so much so that one in three of our brightest and best youth (36% to be exact) think that corruption is OK, according to one survey among Malaysian university students.
How have we come to this situation? The answer has to be a slow steady erosion of the morals of our leaders over the past 40 years, increasingly not only tolerating corrupt behaviour and accepting corruption as a way of life but indulging freely in them.
Can Anwar turn the tide? He has to get support from his partners and while they may resist direct action, they have to support any major attempt to curb corruption - it will be politically terribly incorrect not to do so,
Thus the starting point might be to make it unambiguously clear that all corrupt acts must cease immediately and culprits will face the full wrath of the law. A clear message will be given by chopping some heads and making key appointments at both the enforcement and prosecution level at all agencies.
These include the police, attorney general’s chambers, MACC, Customs, enforcement officers at city and local councils, the Securities Commission, the Companies Commission, Bank Negara Malaysia, the aviation commission, just to name a few.
Replace anyone who may be tainted, appoint new ones with unquestioned integrity and ability and if they do not perform, get rid of them. Require that all corruption cases be thoroughly investigated and provide the necessary independence and resources for the agencies to function effectively.
It is not easy - many battles will be fought and many will be won and many will be lost before we win the war. It will be longer than WW11.
There are other things that can be done. How many people know, for instance, there is a National Anti-Corruption Plan 2019-2023? Like most plans, it is a good one and like most plans it lacks implementation.
Anwar has to merely dust it off, get a quick update and set the mechanism in place to implement. Tell us, the rakyat, what are targets, how they will be implemented, monitor quarterly and tell us too.
Ironically, it was the previous Harapan government which launched this plan at the end of Jan 2019. But even before the government fell in Feb 2020, the plan was very much forgotten. Ironically too, it was Mahathir who launched the plan. Here’s part of the vision statement by him:
“Before 9th May 2018, most Malaysians were disgusted with the rampant corruption in the country involving the Government which was internationally described as kleptocracy. They expressed their disgust through the ballot box leading to the change of Government, removing a party/coalition which had ruled the nation since independence.
“It is therefore imperative for the new Government to always be reminded that the single most burning issue which was capable of bringing down a 61-year old Government was its corrupt practice. The new Government under the Pakatan Harapan coalition, is committed to combat corruption. For this it had, since it took over the nation’s governance, undertaken measures and introduced policies that are unique and innovative.
“The Government will ensure this effort is implemented to protect the rights of the people, to stop leakages of public funds, to strengthen our national security and to spur economic growth. This effort is also in line with Article 5 of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Kuala Lumpur Statement on Anti-Corruption Strategies in 2013.”
So much lip service but no progress. Will Anwar’s rhetoric end up the same way? One hopes not - tough as it is, a major start towards fighting corruption must be made. Anwar cannot compromise on this.
It’s not a question of whether we can root out corruption and patronage, we must. Otherwise we perish.
(P Gunasegaram, a former editor at online and print news publications, and head of equity research, is an independent writer, analyst and consultant.)
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