What's missing in Malaysia is sense of shame

FREE VOXPOP 'The wife will save her own skin and declare that if anything goes wrong, her husband and children will be on their own. It's every man for himself here.'

The death of accountability in M'sia

Swipenter: This culture of not owning up to their misdeeds by our politicians and public figures started during the tenure of former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration.

He used all kinds of dirty tricks to retain political power and those aligned to him could get off scot-free as long as they were useful to him.

To reward them, his cronies were given high and cosy positions and of course money through privatisation of government entities and enterprises like seaports, airports, highways, power and utilities, etc.

After more than three decades of indulging in such practices, it has become a way of life and a culture of the Umnoputras and BN-putras. They are just more blatant about it now because they know they can get away with it and therefore can act with impunity.

In the BMF (Bumiputra Malaysia Finance), Perwaja , Lingam-gate, PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone), the forex (foreign exchange) scandal, Cowgate, Copgate and many other scandals, none of the major figures have been or will be found guilty of any wrongdoing, if by chance they were ever even investigated and brought before a court of law. You help me, I help you.

Blind Freddo: Swipenter, the culture of not owning up to your responsibilities is deeply entrenched in Malaysian (and Asian?) society. It has nothing to do with Mahathir.

Why else do Malaysians need the concept of saving face which gives them the right to ignore, lie, cheat and blame to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions? Saving face is such a national 'sport' that nobody in Malaysia has ever done anything wrong

What I'd like to know is who will Anwar Ibrahim, et al, be accountable to? They have made no promises so they can't be held accountable to the rakyat.

Anyway, once in power the ball is in their court for the next five years. The police, the judiciary and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) are dysfunctional so they can't be accountable to them.

The auditor-general has no teeth, so forget him, all he can do is expose. God has shown him/herself to be not interested in accountability until after you are dead, and by then it's too late.

Swipenter: Blind Freddo, you seem to think that the concept of "saving face" and "non-accountability" is one and the same thing. It is not.

Lone_star: Attempts to murder accountability have been made. But accountability is not dead.

Just to stand by and watch and do nothing is to allow evil to triumph and accountability to die. Not everyone is ready to stand up in the open and be counted for reasons best known to themselves.

But the forthcoming general elections should allow all right-thinking rakyat the opportunity to do what is right and resuscitate and resurrect accountability, to allow this nation to rise again to be among the best of nations.

Anonymous_rb345: In Malaysia, the wife would claim ignorance of what her husband and her children have done.

The wife will save her own skin and declare that if anything goes wrong, her husband and children will be on their own. It's every man for himself here.

Anon-23: I find that markedly absent with these people is a sense of shame. - Malaysiakini