MALAYSIA THE MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN THE THIRD WORLD

It would be simplistic to declare, in the wake of the Washington Post’s foreignpolicy.com listing, that Malaysia is the third most corrupt in the world, and the most corrupt in the Third World, because of the RM2.6 billion political “donation” controversy and the 1MDB scandal.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, taking power in 1998 as prime minister, saw the removal of all checks-and-balances and the concentration of all political power in the country in his person and the Prime Minister’s Office and Prime Minister’s Department in general.

These are the keys to the corruption phenomenon in Malaysia: the removal of all checks-and-balances and the over-concentration of political power in the prime minister.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." (Lord Acton 1834-1902)

Is it any wonder therefore that we have been plagued by the RM2.6 billion political “donation” controversy and the 1MDB scandal?

The story of corruption in Malaysia actually begins, for those into history, with successive emperors in Beijing encouraging rebellious citizens in South China to migrate to Southeast Asia to do business, and never come back.

China’s policy, until then, had been to engage with Southeast Asia in the political, diplomatic and military spheres while India’s engagement was cultural, religious and trade.

In fact, China itself got her religion and philosophies from India. This has led historians to observe that “India conquered China long ago without sending even one soldier across the border”.

Beijing further encouraged the influx of Chinese traders into Southeast Asia when western colonisers arrived in the region 500 years ago. The Chinese traders followed the colonial flags as they were planted everywhere in Southeast Asia.

Malayalee Muslims from Kerala, India, in Singapore created the concept of Malay nationalism “to oppose Chinese economic domination of Malaya and Singapore”.

The historical sources can be found in “The Origin of Malay Nationalism” by Professor William Roff (Universiti Malaya, Australian National University).  The Malayalee Muslims set up the first Malay printing press and Utusan Malaysia and gave Singapore Yusuf Ishak, its first president, and Mahathir to Malaysia.

Malay nationalism was based on a “collective amnesia of the past” and was “recognised” by the British in Malaya when they codified the term Malay to refer to Muslims in the peninsula who used the Malay language to communicate with each other.

These Muslims came from places which ranged from Celebes, Java and Sumatra, south Thailand, and Myanmar to Sri Lanka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Arab states, China, and the Wasp (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) nations.

Therein lies the seeds of AliBabaism, i.e. the Malay Ali getting government contracts and farming them out to the Chinese Baba.

AliBabaism is a key component of the corruption phenomenon, along with white collar crimes – read 1MDB – in Malaysia.

The story of corruption in the country was further developed, inadvertently, when Article 153 in the Federal Constitution reserved a “reasonable proportion” for Malays, and later the Orang Asal as well, in four specific areas viz intake into the civil service, intake in institutions of higher learning owned by the government and training opportunities, government scholarships and opportunities from the government to do business.

The last specific area – opportunities from the government to do business – is important in the story of corruption in Malaysia.

The New Economic Policy (NEP 1970-1990) was an extrapolation and logical deduction of Article 153 but as it panned out, was observed more often than not – like Article 153 – in the breach and in a deviated and distorted form, literally sabotaged by AliBabaism.

The lofty goals of the NEP pledged eradication of economic function and place of residence with race and creed; eradication of poverty irrespective of race and creed; and the Malay to own, control and manage 30 per cent of the corporate economy – i.e. companies listed on the stock market – within a 20-year timeframe, 1970-1990. - http://theantdaily.com/