The normalisation of corruption

 

The country is currently all agog talking about corruption. Such as about some cops who allegedly asked for a bribe from a motorist, and also about a slightly larger corruption case regarding did they or did they not pardon that corrupt convict?

Well, apparently they didn’t. Whilst the sentence of said corrupt convict was halved, he still remains a full convict. It’s a solution that pleased no one which means, in the best of Malaysia Boleh traditions, we’ll get to play this game all over again soon.

Then there’re some other cases against some geriatrics (and/or their progenies) who became super rich whilst they were running the country decades ago. According to our established legal principles, they’ll of course remain rich until proven guilty, after which they’d still likely remain rich.

Nothing new to see here folks, move along, move along!

Nothing new indeed. But, has it always been like this? Here, I’d have to agree with many of my boring old peers that in the good old days, the scourge of corruption wasn’t as bad.

One reason was there just wasn’t that much money around. The country was poor, the economic pie was small, and enforcement and public opinion against corruption was high.

Our political system then was young, vigorous and quite effective. Leaders then mostly came from the privileged classes and didn’t feel they needed to gorge at the public trough to make their fortunes.

Back then we did have the Mr. Ten Percent – a “gatekeeper” or “facilitator”, whether political, bureaucratic or even commercial, who took their proverbial tithe on whatever it was they facilitated.

But the Mr. Ten Percents did deliver – works and projects were completed and the rakyat generally saw something for their money, even if not the full 100 percent.

Today, however, corruption often means the “initiators” and “enablers” taking everything that is on the table, and perhaps even the table and half the postcode the table is in too.

Back then, people were also more honest. Many truly believed being poor but honest was better than the other way around. Regardless of the utility of such a belief in today’s dog-eat-dog world, it did help to create a cleaner society.

Even the way bribes were described back then showed  society’s disapproval. They were colloquially called “tumbuk rusuk” in Malay, literally meaning a punch to the ribs. I can’t figure out the provenance of the term, but for sure it didn’t sound very approving.

Where are we today, though? Clearly we are not in a very good place.

We have normalised corruption. Many of our elites, whether political or business, feel it’s their right to grab money, even if it’s public funds, perhaps especially if it’s public funds, through any means possible.

The increased piety of the Malays hasn’t brought about a decline in corruption. If anything, the opposite has happened. But does Islam countenance corruption then?

Certainly not, in fact the opposite is true. But if that is so, why hasn’t there been a drop in corruption along with the rise in piety?

Unfortunately, the version of Islam many practice today is political Islam, which is more about winning political battles than God’s graces. It’s the nuclear bomb of Malaysian politics – its use, or even its threat, can silence anybody, Muslims or otherwise, who have other dissenting views.

The usual powerful political forces also see corruption as a right, a privilege or at least a useful tool. This means the truly religious are forced to find a way to live with and not fall afoul of these forces.

You see an example in the hudud law issues. Corruption has been argued as not a crime punishable under hudud, because it’s apparently a case of willing giver and willing taker, so it’s not exactly a hudud offence.

Now I don’t think the proponents of hudud are corrupt. I think they are honest and well meaning people, but are also practical and pragmatic enough not to pick fights and instead steer clear of these powerful forces. Let sleeping dogs lie is their philosophy.

The other reason is the religion has been focused, often by the same people who politicised Islam, into personal rituals. It’s now more about earning merits through blindly following whatever religious leaders say rather than living a life as a shining example to others, whether Muslims or non-Muslims.

Alas, that is too hard. And conveniently, this focus on rituals and merits also allows many corrupt people to feel they can wash the stain of corruption away through some religious gestures later in life, such as repentance or donations or pilgrimages.

But it’s not just the Malays who have normalised corruption. It takes two hands to clap. The entire Malaysian society seems to have condoned it. The quest to get rich by any means possible is one that many people of all races and faiths have totally embraced.

People generally are not amoral enough to say they are corrupt because it’s profitable to them. Instead, they rationalise it away, often by saying everybody does it, so why not them? Everybody, including the corrupt, likes to cover themselves with the cloak of victimhood.

The takers of bribes would say the givers are a lawless bunch who’d always use their wealth to benefit themselves. The givers, on the other hand, tell it as if there’s a gun to their head forcing them to give bribes in return for some larger benefits for themselves.

The reality is much simpler. The takers of bribes, whether public servants or otherwise, and especially if they are public servants, are corrupt and have betrayed the trust placed on them. That is a crime and a sin in any religion. No two ways about it.

The givers meanwhile, who gave RM50 to escape from paying RM300 in court, are just as corrupt. On top of that, they are also guilty of whatever original infraction they had committed, so they are actually two-time sinners. And there’s no two ways about this either.

Both sets of people are hypocrites. Both sets are immoral criminals. And both sets betray the country and the people in it.

Our lives wouldn’t be so sad if corruption only involved traffic offences and coffee money. Unfortunately, it has pervaded into areas and amounts that make us notorious world leaders in corruption. These, and the impunity many people feel, are sad testaments to how far our society has fallen.

Unless we can face up to this reality, and stop giving ourselves all kinds of hypocritical excuses and rationalisation, we’ll never get rid of corruption. It will forever remain a blight on our society, and we are all stained by it. - FMT

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