If anything can topple a government, it’s corruption – J.D. Lovrenciear

What else Malaysians will be fed with in the days and months to come is any sane person’s wild guess. At the rate the Malaysian politicians are churning out all kinds of inflammatory and high-speculation statements, one wonders on which planet Malaysia really is.

The latest serial drama-like dishing out of fear-laced statements is now centred on someone plotting to topple the government of the day. Such ridiculous claims by none other than the deputy prime minister of Malaysia who is also the captain of the nation’s Home Ministry not only make the leaders look silly but in fact provide the very reasons for the further sinking of Malaysia’s economic and, along with it, political well-being. 

While the citizens on the other side of the sovereign “debt” company 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) sneer at the absurd statements being churned out in desperate attempts to shield, slither away from and attempt a Houdini-act to erase the numerous unanswered questions affecting this unprecedented scheme of money-making trail, politicians must accept the fact that such alarming statements also frighten away tourists and investors.

Worse, hot on the heels of the less-than-twenty four hours of alarm-raising by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi came his breakthrough assurance that the person plotting to topple the government has realised his/her folly and is going to apologise to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Please politicians, you were hired on taxpayers’ money to stop all this game-chasing politicking. Instead, in your desperate attempts to plug the bursting pipelines of 1MDB, you are creating unnecessary alarm, not to mention making the nation’s reputation of a democratic governance sink even further.

If there is anything that is certain to bring down any government in this new age, it is corruption. Got it?

So go and fight the real enemy of a progressive and harmonious nation, corruption.

Today if you think that Umno is under threat, it is not because people are plotting an evil scheme. The many current divisional meetings are clearly telling the Najib coterie that they want crystal clear accountability and transparency.

What is becoming increasingly apparent even to the global and distant media world is that the right-minded citizens of Malaysia are determined to fight the real enemy which is corruption. At some critical defining moment of truth, the people will rise above the narrow alleys of party allegiance and fake loyalty to converge on a common and higher platform of good governance.

For good governance is the only currency of hope and premium protection against the real enemy of nationhood, corruption.

At that point, which in all probability may be witnessed at the planned Bersih 4.0 rally soon, the message will be clearly chiselled into the nation’s milestone of aspirations that our enemy who must be conquered at all costs but in a peaceful manner is corruption.

So if you do not want your Umno or the Najib administration to be under any perceived or real threat, stop the serial dramas and instead work relentlessly to convince the citizens and the watching global community that you have zero tolerance for corruption.

To do that, endorse and act on all the good and best practice advice that netizens and civil society leaders have propagated all these recent months out of a sheer passion for the nation’s future.

* J.D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.