The black hole of corruption

 

In many countries, where corruption involves a company and a government official, both the giver and taker are punished. The timber baron who obtains a permit to log in a protected area should be prosecuted together with the government official who issued him the logging permit. Why is the practice of punishing both giver and taker not observed in Malaysia?

When politicians steal from the taxpayer, they should be handed the maximum punishment.

Many Malaysians think that corruption is just money passing hands from the giver, to the receiver. It is not.

How many politicians declare the gifts they receive from industrialists or businessmen?

These are given to buy influence or to induce the politician to decide a certain way. Or they are given to say thank you for an unauthorised action.

Gifts are a form of corruption. Even the simple hamper given to a government official for any of the festivals in Malaysia is corruption. The overseas holiday for the official’s family is corruption. The horses given as gifts to the children of a former menteri besar is corruption. Treating the politician to dinner in a fancy restaurant followed by rest and recreation in a “gentleman’s only” establishment is corruption.

What is the cost of corruption to Malaysians? We know about the amounts involved with some corrupt politicians. We read about the money they stash in offshore accounts. Huge sums are involved.

What about normal everyday corruption? How many hundreds of millions of ringgit are lost in the black hole of corruption? The envelope containing a few hundred ringgit to obtain a certificate to certify that an individual’s car is roadworthy, although the car should really belong to a scrap yard.

How many millions of ringgit are handed over to rogue policemen who lie in wait for unsuspecting motorists? The policemen then lie and tell the motorist that they have broken the traffic laws. The shocked motorist is too scared to confront the policeman so he pays up. He is also told that he either pays up RM50 there and then, or be dragged to court where the fine is RM300. All lies of course but in the heat of the moment, many people are too afraid to resist. Amounts according to friends vary from RM50 to RM300.

A friend’s son was drunk and hit a lamp post. He was not injured but he had broken the law and destroyed public property. The policeman who attended the scene was allegedly paid RM2,000 to cover-up the crime. Instead of a drunk driver, it was recorded that his brakes had failed.

Corruption does not necessarily involve money. Cronyism and nepotism are forms of corruption.

Logging permits, in protected forests, have been issued to cronies only because they have powerful political connections.

A village in northern Perak had complained about a mill discharging chemicals into the river. Freshwater lobsters (udang galah) which are very sensitive to the water quality were killed. The villagers lost a source of income. The crony’s friend who was a senior politician in the state helped to hush up the villagers’ complaints.

Both the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak are blessed with natural resources like oil, gas and timber. The people should enjoy good education, healthcare, transport links and a high standard of living, but Sabahans are the poorest people in Malaysia, whilst the Sarawakians are the second poorest. So, where did the money from the hydrocarbon reserves go?

How was this money spent? Was it mismanaged? Has the black hole of corruption sucked in most of the money meant for the rakyat? If there were insufficient funds to improve the lives of the East Malaysians, why did the leaders of Sabah and Sarawak not ask for an increase in their annual budget?

How about unreported corruption? A few years ago, there was a crackdown on several Road Transport Department (RTD) officers in a northern state. They had been receiving bribes from various lorry operators. It was not a one-off occurrence as the scandal had been operating for many years. How much money had been involved? This was just for one state.

If we included the money from corrupt goings-on in the RTDs of the other states in Peninsular Malaysia and also Sabah and Sarawak, what would the total be?

If the bribery and corruption of other departments such as the immigration department, the land office and ministries like the defence ministry, were included, will the total amount be several hundred millions of ringgit? Billions perhaps?

Will the new unity government address this black hole of corruption with all the seriousness it deserves? The lost revenue could be used to fund public services. - FMT

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