‘War on graft’ that was just Dr M’s war on Umno

 

Allegations against Najib Razak were quickly acted upon, but those about Sarawak were conveniently ignored, says a book author. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s war against corruption was more of a campaign against certain Umno leaders, while the coalition he led did little to reduce corruption, says a former diplomat.

Only a handful of senior Umno leaders were hauled to court, despite Mahathir’s promises to go all out against graft, Dennis Ignatius notes in a chapter on corruption in his book, Paradise Lost: Mahathir and the End of Hope.

He said corrupt leaders in Sarawak were given a free pass.

Allegations of corruption laid against Najib Razak by Sarawak Report were quickly acted upon, “but similar reports by the same news portal about corruption in Sarawak were conveniently disregarded,” he said.

There were also plenty of scandals at the defence ministry, including the payment for six undelivered littoral combat ships “that were all but ignored”.

Ignatius also said despite all the corruption and mismanagement uncovered by the auditor-general and Public Accounts Committee “not a single politician, senior officer, civil servant or CEO has ever been taken to task”.

PAS also escaped appropriate scrutiny following reports that it received RM90 million from Umno, funds which were allegedly linked to 1MDB.

And while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission submitted results of its probe to the attorney-general “no one knows what became of it”.

Ignatius went on to say it did not bode well for Pakatan Harapan’s commitment to fight corruption and uphold the rule of law when it decided to withdraw all graft charges Lim Guan Eng over the alleged conversion of state land and the purchase of a bungalow at below market value.

He said while Guan Eng’s case may have been politically motivated to begin with, it had set a bad precedent and gave the impression the DAP secretary-general and Bagan MP had received special consideration.

Ignatius also said that despite the grand anti-corruption initiatives put forward by the PH administration, graft remained “rife as ever”.

“PH leaders talked a great deal about fighting corruption but confined their attention to a few senior Umno leaders.” And while jailing a few corrupt leaders made for good politics it hardly did anything to resolve a critical national challenge, he wrote.

Ignatius’s book, which will be launched on Sept 9 is available for pre-order. It retails for RM60. - FMT