Paul Low shames Transparency International – Ravinder Singh

Commenting on the Bersih 4 or “yellow shirt” rally Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low said: “They were asking the prime minister to resign. So this is a problem because they must know that the prime minister is elected through the general election.”

By trying to school Malaysians that the prime minister can only be changed through general elections held every five years, Low has not only reduced his stature but being past president of Transparency International Malaysia and deputy chairman and commissioner of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), he has also shamed both these organisations, as his lecture is inconsistent with the objectives of these organisations which he should have subscribed to during his tenure with them. It is said that a tiger does not change its stripes, only a chameleon changes its colour to match the environment it is in, to camouflage itself for its own security and to deceive its prey.      

Any person who draws a salary is an employee. The PM and Ministers are paid salaries. So they are employees. Employees are subject to the terms and conditions of their employment. They have to be competent to perform their jobs. They have to perform their jobs with dedication and honesty. They have to be transparent and accountable for their acts and omissions.

They cannot use their positions for any personal gain. They cannot undermine the interests of the organisation or entity they work for. Their employment is at the pleasure of their employers who have the right to discipline them or even terminate their services.

The PM and ministers are employees of the citizens who employed them through the process of general elections. They are entrusted to do a proper job in managing the affairs of state, just like a board of directors of a large business organisation.

The stakeholders of the business organisation have a right to throw out the chairman of the board of directors, or even the whole board at any time. Doing so does not mean closing down the business. It is merely replacing the incompetent or corrupted with others who can manage the business better.

Similarly the citizens have a right to throw out the prime minister and other ministers. This does not mean “overthrowing” the government. It means the party in power should replace their candidates holding the position(s) in question.

We have seen how persons holding such high office in other countries and who do not have insensitive skin,  gentlemanly bow out when they are held accountable for their acts or omissions. For instance, if a rail disaster happens that could have been prevented if the tracks had been kept in good repair but were not, the minister in charge takes responsibility although he was not the person physically working on the tracks. He had failed to ensure those doing the job had not slept on it due to incompetence, corruption or whatever reason, and bows out gracefully with an apology. The party then appoints another to take his place. The government is not overthrown.

When citizens hold their number one employee, the prime minister, accountable for something, and both the person and the party that he is from refuse to show an iota of accountability, what are the citizens to do?

Politicians, when elected to high office, still remain humans. They are not transformed into beings of a different kind, more superior to humans and to lord over the humans. They are there to serve their fellow humans who chose them as their leaders. So they should not behave like kacang lupakan kulit.

However, Paul Low and a few others are lecturing us that politicians in power have by some unknown means been transformed into superior, untouchable, unquestionable beings who have been endowed the power to lord over the rest for five years, never mind that it is the “rest” that put them in their seats in the first place.

Low, if you are on a bus that is on a journey from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, and the driver is driving recklessly, would you sit quietly or be bold enough to tell him to slow down, drive more carefully or let the co-driver take over, or just close your eyes and say to yourself the driver has a right to drive as he wishes until he reaches Kuala Lumpur, and pray that he reaches without a mishap? Any mishap would then be an act of God.      

The yellow shirts were just standing up boldly to tell the driver of the nation called Malaysia to step aside and let a co-driver take over. Is that wrong? A lot more people who could not join the yellow shirts also feel that the nation’s driver needs to be changed. Even members of his own party and many other prominent citizens have also said so. Are they all so wrong?

It is really shameful that someone associated with Transparency International should turn to preaching a culture of arrogance, for that is what his words “ …they were asking the prime minister to resign. So this is a problem because they must know that the prime minister is elected through the general election”.  

The prime minister is a human who should know how to feel shame, to feel accountable, to acknowledge his shortcomings, and not allow anyone to use the race and religion card for political purposes since he is the prime minister of all Malaysians. If he doesn’t measure up to this, then he can be considered “unfit for the purpose”.

Just as in the case of goods, it is the end-users that will know whether they have got a “lemon” of a product that needs to be discarded and replaced with another. So with their elected representatives who cannot judge themselves.

*Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insider.