Policeman at the junction: education alone won’t stop corruption

This is the challenge facing the prime minister: he must willingly constrain his own power over the machinery of justice. And I don’t envy him.

We are told from childhood to heed traffic rules. Yet anyone who has driven on our roads knows that many of us treat them as suggestions, heeding them only when a policeman is visible at the junction. The moment we see that uniform, compliance becomes instantaneous.

We obey not because we have internalised the law’s moral force; we obey because we fear being caught.

This is not a peculiarity of Malaysian drivers — it is a reflection of human nature everywhere. And it applies just as much to the scourge of corruption.

People do not walk away from corrupt practices simply because they have learned to hate corruption or because it is a religious injunction. They stop because they fear being caught.

This observation exposes the limits of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent message to Gen Z.

Speaking at the National Student Figure Awards on Oct 1, 2026, he reminded undergraduates that a degree or a doctorate is no shield against greed. He noted that many of those implicated in major scandals such as 1MDB, Felda, and Tabung Haji are well educated.

His conclusion was sound: “A good education, therefore, does not make one virtuous.” But speeches are traffic signs — necessary, yet powerless without the policeman standing behind them. Advice, after all, is the easiest thing a politician can give.

Anwar also said he would be relentless in his pursuit of corrupt officials past and present, regardless of political fallout. Which means his rhetoric rests on two pillars: cultivating character in our young and pursuing corrupt officials.

Preaching to students costs nothing. It does not ask anyone in power to surrender their influence. Building a truly independent enforcement mechanism, however, is expensive, politically risky, and institutionally demanding.

Anwar should know this better than most. He spent decades on the outside arguing for these very structural changes. Now, he holds the keys to the house and he must build that policeman.

To be fair, the administration has taken formal steps, such as the establishment of the National Education Council and the National Education Blueprint 2026–2035, which aim to strengthen values and morals from primary school through higher learning.

This is a welcome bridge. But forming a council or launching a national plan is not the same as implementing deep reform.

Character education cannot remain trapped as slogans in civics textbooks. It requires teachers trained in moral reasoning rather than rote recitation; and it requires ethics to be treated with utmost seriousness in fields where misconduct carries the highest stakes — medicine, engineering, finance, and public administration.

Strengthening values in educational institutions will help the next generation and beyond. But a capable and independent policeman is needed at the junction today.

While the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) possesses the statutory power to initiate investigations independently, its structural vulnerability stems from executive oversight — chiefly that its leadership serves at the pleasure of the executive.

Reform advocates including G25 and Bersih have long urged that the MACC be removed from the Prime Minister’s Department and placed under parliamentary oversight via a constitutionally mandated independent anti-corruption commission.

But to be fair, the MACC under Anwar recorded 1,095 charges and 563 convictions from 2,633 investigation papers opened since 2024, with 583 involving high-profile and public-interest cases. Asset recovery has been aggressive: RM6.81 billion seized between January and August 2025 alone, against leakages estimated at RM277 billion over six years.

And three former prime ministers are among several top politicians facing trial.

Yet we see more cases of corruption emerging — Najib Razak’s discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) in his SRC International case (June 2025), ongoing probes into defence procurement and military officers, and Anwar’s public backing of MACC investigations into senior officials, the MACC ‘corporate mafia’ allegation — and we shake our heads saying corruption has become systemic.

Why? Is it that those handling public money are unafraid of being caught if they indulge in corruption? Is it because they feel they can get away if they are connected? Is it because givers feel they will get away with it? If this is so, enforcement needs to be tightened and those enforcing it must be of unquestionable integrity.

Do businessmen resort to bribes because they see it as the only way to ensure swift clearance of their problems or approvals for their initiatives by civil servants? If this is so, the systems and processes used by regulators need improvement.

Is corruption systemic because political parties are funded by monetary gifts from those who have gained government contracts? If so, the registrar of societies and the MACC need to scrutinise the accounts of all political parties to the minutest detail.

Also, there is the credibility question. Persistent structural bottlenecks — such as prosecutorial discretion resting solely with the attorney general — continue to fuel public perceptions of selective enforcement.

Hassan Abdul Karim, the admirable Pakatan Harapan MP for Pasir Gudang, told Parliament in January that government efforts were affected by public perception that corruption cases were being investigated inconsistently.

“From the outside, people see that some cases are investigated quickly, some are delayed, and sometimes cases are not investigated at all. Some cases lead to charges quickly, while others do not.”

Asking how the government could fully implement anti-corruption measures if elites and high-ranking national leaders received “discounts,” he said: “I am not saying this is a mistake, but something is not right. On one hand, we want to fight corruption fully, yet on the other, some are let off with ‘discounts’.”

“Moreover, among our elite leaders, both past and present, many court cases end with DNAA. Not only that, some are then given NFA (no further action). I sympathise with the officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission who diligently investigate these cases.”

No one can seriously argue against his points.

Civil society organisations such as Transparency International Malaysia have also reminded us that stagnant global perceptions reflect lingering anxieties over unresolved high-profile cases and controversial DNAA decisions.

Therefore, any move to make the MACC more effective and independent must be paired with the long-debated separation of powers between the attorney general (the government’s chief legal adviser) and the public prosecutor (who holds absolute constitutional discretion under Article 145(3) to institute, conduct, or discontinue criminal proceedings).

Although the government has agreed in principle to split these roles, the slow pace of constitutional amendments leaves a system where prosecutorial discretion remains tied to the executive.

This is the challenge facing the prime minister: he must willingly constrain his own power over the machinery of justice. And I don’t envy him.

As prime minister, Anwar holds the power to initiate and constitutionalise MACC independence, finalise the separation of the public prosecutor from the attorney general, reform public procurement and political financing, protect whistleblowers, ensure greater government transparency, and allow more freedom of expression.

Moral speeches set the tone; but the harder work is restructuring our systems so that corruption becomes difficult, risky, and socially unsustainable.

Our prime minister has told young Malaysians to hate corruption. He now has the historic opportunity to build the independent institutions that make wrongdoers fear it.

Just as we need the red lights and the visible policeman at the traffic junction to ensure full compliance, we need to complement advice and education in values with an effective and independent MACC and an autonomous prosecutor to put fear into potential wrongdoers and enforce the message that no one is above the law. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT