Don’t let corruption define who we are

 

In Malaysia, the biggest source of wealth is government money, or more accurately money of the rakyat, or the public, in the government’s coffers.

This money comes from taxes, duties, levies, fees or fines, or from royalties or revenues of national resources such as oil or timber.

Governments in Malaysia exist at federal and state levels and in the many cities, towns and districts. It’s big, omnipotent, and intrusive too.

Then there’s the many government agencies, authorities and statutory bodies. And on top of these are the GLCs, or the swarm of Government-Linked Companies in the private sector.

Public money is meant to be spent on the rakyat, to create a safe, level playing field under the rule of law and with various social safety nets, so that people can get on with their lives.

The federal government, whether directly or indirectly, is the biggest employer and spender in the country. Hence, it’s very powerful and those who control it get to be very powerful as well.

The private sector in Malaysia, in spite of all the many issues besetting the country, punches above its weight in the region, at least for now. It, too, is very powerful, and those who control it get to be very powerful, too.

The private sector powers the economy and creates wealth, and hence funds the government as well. It’s supposed to be the tide that raises all boats, whether big and small.

When these two powerful sectors work together, big things happen, whether good or bad.

Malaysia has its fair share of corruption in the public sector. Not being a lawyer, I define this simply as public money lost through wilful abuses that benefit their perpetrators at the expense of the rakyat.

This definition excludes losses through incompetence and negligence, and boy, don’t we have a lot of those too!

Malaysians have come to accept corruption as part of our life. It seems to happen mostly with the government’s money, which is everybody’s money, which of course means it’s nobody’s money.

Certainly there’s private sector corruption, too, but it’s the level of public sector corruption that drives the level of private sector corruption.

We’ve been in the grip of a long running Malaysian corruption saga – that of the government investment company 1MDB which is world-class in terms of the amounts stolen and the sheer brazen ingenuity of the perpetrators.

We’ve had four different governments since the scandals started. Each pursued a particular angle, from covering up, to vigorous, perhaps selective, prosecutions of those involved.

Lately, a few high profile 1MDB perpetrators were on the losing side of the legal battles brought about by the authorities, resulting in convictions and even imprisonment. There could be more actions in the near future – or not, depending on who exercises the will on the matter.

Umno, the Malay nationalist political party where many of those targeted for prosecution come from, is contorted by a paroxysm of rather comical hysteria and perhaps even panic – unless there’s a method to their madness which I can’t see.

Many people there are those who wouldn’t dream of keeping the one ringgit that fell out of your pocket, but would happily pocket thousands or even millions of ringgit of “government money” the moment they get the chance.

The rule that says stealing a ringgit from Adzhar is a sin doesn’t seem to apply if you steal millions from the government, provided you spread some of it around.

It gets to be such that major government projects are just an excuse to divert public funds to benefit the few. This is on top of the vast petty corruption that goes on throughout the system already.

A lot of focus, and rightly so, has been on the Malay political elites involved. They’re indeed a disgrace to Malays at large: they should be locked up and the keys thrown away.

But the 1MDB saga is a true Keluarga Malaysia endeavour. It could only happen because of two sets of people – the mostly Malay leaders in the government, and the mostly Chinese men and women in the business world.

(In case my Indian brothers and sisters are offended at being excluded, don’t worry, there are Indians in there somewhere too!)

It takes two hands to clap. The Malay hand is apparently getting its comeuppance. But the other hand, from the business world, seems to be almost forgotten.

To sum up things, 1MDB happened because powerful Malay political leaders and shrewd Chinese businessmen hatched a scheme to steal billions of ringgits of the rakyat’s money.

They were aided and abetted by scores of other Malays and non-Malays, of whom many are Malaysian Chinese but also Malaysian non-Chinese, non-Malaysian Chinese and assorted foreign devils attracted by easy pickings.

As to who is playing who, that depends on your point of view. Perhaps the honest but lazy Malays (not my words!) truly were led into corruption by the devious non-Malays!

But I don’t buy that lazy argument offered by those experts of the hereafter, who are actually clueless about the here and now.

The Malay political elites clearly thought they had gamed the system such that they could get away with anything. Fears of the hereafter are assuaged by self-serving hereafter experts happy to suck up to their wealth and power.

This was matched by the equally devious, cynical, money-worshipping mindset of many Chinese business people that serve no higher master than their bank accounts. Even seemingly honest ones are happy to support crooked politicians as long as there’s money to be made somehow.

This is the attitude that corrodes and corrupts society. It must be put into proper perspective – stealing government money is stealing it from those who need it the most. For those of us who may not need it so much, then it’s our children’s future that’s being stolen.

And watching this happen without doing anything, and maybe even rationalising it away, is almost as bad.

We need to make sure it’s Malaysia Tak Boleh for these corrupt people, regardless of race or power or wealth, and that they pay the price for their greed, so that other aspiring thieves learn their lessons. - FMT

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