Part One: Anti-corruption: you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs

Written by Dr Teck-Yong Eng

July 31, 2008

It will be a major victory to the nation and to democracy if corruption in Malaysia is transformed from a norm to an exception in our government and society. It’s a big “if??? because gradual and incremental efforts against corruption had never worked from historical accounts. Corrupt forces are self-perpetuating with an increasing degree of difficulty to dislodge as the norm in behaviour and expectation of corrupt practices in a society. As noted previously, anti-corruption campaigns in an institutionally corrupt country would only take root through a massive coordinated effort akin to a civil war and total transformation of the current administration.

What we need is a strong leader and someone who can start afresh and dare to challenge the system. Would this happen in the current administration and do you expect our PM to make radical changes and start attacking the root of corrupt practices? Are you convinced of plans to reform the ACA (see previous article)? Do you think the ACA is independent from the government? Do you consider a recent spate of arrests of ‘big fish’ when the scale of corruption is negligible compared to those involving senior ministers, sons, in-laws, wives and relatives?

Unfortunately, my answer to the above is a resounding “No???. Sadly, unless there are major forces from the people and the opposition, our country will remain corrupt for a foreseeable future. The ruling party also had the opportunity to tackle corruption from within the system and create a new transparent government after its colossal loss in the 12th General Elections. Despite this, no one in the party dares to stand up and heed the voice of the people that enough is enough and corruption is unsustainable in every sense. In the absence of a true leader, with now entrenched party traditions, power and hierarchy, and money politics, no one in the ruling party has the courage or competence to do what is best for Malaysia.

But as the day goes by the probability of internal forces to topple corrupt institutions through total transformation is getting slimmer. The government is gaining momentum in appeasing internal conflicts and strengthening its political allies as the dust or aftermath of the historic election defeat settles. The opposition in its first year and probationary term of major control over five states is too preoccupied with convincing party crossover or gullible to playing personal politics with the ruling party. The main task on hand is to demonstrate to the people how clean governance would work and achieve better economic results.

By focusing on governance and tangible outputs, the opposition party would lead by example and put pressure on the ruling party. This may even convince the majority to cross over to the opposition. However, it must be pointed out that the 12th General Elections is history and the mandate has been passed that the ruling party has the right to form government and the opposition must be more focused on its manifestos and implement policies that are responsive to people’s needs. Bearing in mind that the root cause of vote rigging in the election can be linked to corruption, the opposition must put an anti-graft agenda as top priority.

Are we stuck permanently to norms of an institutionally corrupt government? Most ordinary people would respond by saying what could we do? What’s the point of being ethical? We have to live and play the game or we can’t change how things work in this country. Some would even happily boast about getting away with civil offences by bribing government officials. This is the mindset of an institutionally corrupt society and the system (government) has successfully conditioned people’s expectations. Is there any hope of change? Are we doomed to accept a bleak future playing by corrupt practices? Are the poor getting poorer (e.g., recent announcement of bread for the poor for a year)? Have the outcomes of successive New Economic Policy and Malaysian Economic Plan only benefited a minority of politically connected individuals? To avoid digressing, the short answer is “Yes??? (for further evidence please see one of my previous articles at: http://strategisingmalaysia.blogspot.com).

How could we watch in silence knowing such corrupt practices are prevalent? We can’t blame ourselves for accepting corruption as norms (at least not entirely). The government has the utmost responsibility in fostering the citizens’ expectations. We live in a country with partisan mainstream media and newspapers, controlled dissemination of information, repression under the draconian Internal Security Act, and the use of the Police and the armed forces to instil fear and threaten anyone who dares to speak against the government, a biased and tarnished judicial system, and racial tensions being fanned whenever there is a need to garner support.

If you still think the government should not shoulder the blame for corruption, you could be forgiven as government advisers are paid handsomely to engineer your expectations and mould your opinions. The timing of fuel price hikes could not be more telling of how public concerns and the feeling of change in political victory by the opposition shift to one main concern: survival. The continued price hikes particularly oil and basic commodities are caused by many decades of and ongoing corruption. For example, ill-designed government projects and unaccounted opportunity costs of non-competitive procurement are achieved at considerable expense to the domestic consumers. This led to the wasteful use of resources with either nothing in return or an inferior product. In turn, the people are forced to consume low-quality products and pay a higher price for them.

Would you care about politics and how corrupt our government is when it is hard to make a living and provide for family members? Apart from how the country’s oil revenues have been distributed (or squandered), the timing of the price increases is most peculiar or politically motivated as the opposition announced its plan to take over the government in the coming months. The move is likely to divert public attention and derail the opposition’s agenda when there is no urgent need to cut subsidies drastically especially in the current climate of world economic uncertainties.

It is also questionable whether a nation’s oil production (resources) is considered a subsidy for its people. I would not argue that there is a need for long-term planning and sustainable energy usage. But it’s highly questionable when there is no shortage of world oil supplies and oil prices had never been so buoyant that the government had to impose the highest price increase by any standard without proper planning for the benefit of the consumers, such as implementing energy awareness campaign/education, improving the standard of public transport, and any more socially caring measures.