New Malaysia - Say NO to Corruption !

I attended the GTP Open Day and participated during the morning Lab on corruption. Many interested Malaysians were there. They were there simply because they were aware that corruption is the single most chronic problem facing Malaysia today. The country is fast moving towards the wrong direction. If nothing was done there will be nothing left for the next generation. There will only be LOTS OF DEBTS for them to contend with.

Malaysia certainly does not look good right now. Corruption is a public disease number ONE. We need the GOOD Malaysians to ACT NOW to eradicate the BAD AND UGLY corrupt Malaysians. With the initiation of this GTP Open Day, the government has shown courage to open up and listen to the rakyat. So we were invited to pass our comments and give our suggestions. I also did exactly that. A small portion of it was printed in the Star the next day.

Corruption must be STOP or Malaysia will soon fall from grace. It will not be long when we shall see our sons and daughters seek jobs overseas. Some as foreign labors in construction industry and factories, and some as domestic maids.

While it is not fair and not true to brand every Malaysians as corrupts, no one can deny that Malaysia has created an increasing number of millionaires and multi millionaires among its corrupted politicians, civil servants, military personnels, police force, judiciary and business sectors.

There are also those among them who are not millionaires, but wealthy enough to live far beyond their formal means. It is frightening to imagine how many there are among us when you put together the big and small corrupt individuals.

Since corruption is our biggest problem, we need our biggest problem solver. We also need the mother of all strategy to tackle this issue. We not only need political will, but more than that we need POLITICAL WHIP. We need politicians to tackle politicians. We need technocrats to tackle technocrats. We need the stakeholders of every fields and sectors to tidy up their areas, and make them squeaky clean.

Corruption is a by product of LEADERSHIP problem. Leadership in every sectors and levels. Where needed we have to replace some of leaders with suitable ones. Our PM certainly has his work cut out for himself. Every Malaysians will be looking at him to lead the way. He can do it, but will he do it ? We shall see.

The Malaysian public need to be ANGRY enough. In some way I think the Malaysian are too tolerant. Too accommodating. We need to learn how to be angry. In a constructive manner. Of course Malaysian can show their anger when they cast their votes during election. Like they did during the last election.

The government must send the right signals to the people. To initiate this GTP Open Day is an excellent signal. It must not stop there. The government must continue sending more right signals. To signal to the people it is alright to say the right thing. It is safe to be whistle blowers. The signals that simply say that corrupt individuals are bad. Catch the culprits and throw them in jail. Celebrate and reward those with clean records, and the whistle blowers as heroes.

The GTP Open Day was only a ONE day affair. It only captured a small segment of Malaysians. The government should organize more with less formality and more openness. Right down to the ground level. Possibly at neighborhood or community levels.

The problem is big enough to warrant us to add another KPI for performance measurement in private and public sectors. KPI for clean slate (not implicated) in corrupt practice. KPI for those performers who champion the cause against corruption. We need to plant the right values and practices against corruption.

Can integrity be learned ? I also suggested that we should make it compulsory for every students in our universities to study and pass the subject on integrity. Groom them to be champion against the cause of corruption way before they enter the job market.

I hope the government is serious about what were being said, and will WALK THE TALK.

Those were my 2 cents worth.

Would you say NO to corruption ? Would appreciate your comments...



What does corruption means ?

Definition :

The use of privileges by office holders and those in statutory and functional equivalent positions for personal benefit. The term includes active and passive bribery of public officials, breach of trust and nepotism. However corruption can be and is defined more broadly for development cooperation as "the behavior of persons entrusted with public or private responsibilities who neglect their duties to achieve unjustified benefits".

This means that the term covers not only the public sphere but also the private and semipublic spheres, ethical standards in civil society, the practices of exploiting positions of trust held by private individuals in business.

Levels of corruption :

There are four different levels of corruption.

At government level

This is done, for example, in the context of land reform by allocating land to high office holders and political cronies, in fraudulent privitazatisation of state enterprises, granting import and export licences, manipulating tender for major contracts, etc.

At the level of the interface between citizen and state (petty corruption)

This relates to officials demanding 'smaller sum' from the citizens to "overlook" real or imagined irregularities, to pay for "public goods and services" for example access to schools, health care in hospitals, etc. It also includes small payment in exchange to escape summons or heavier penalties. The term "petty corruption" relates solely to sum involved, however, its significance for the poor population in particular is very great, and the devastating influence of this corruption on the relationship between state citizen should not be underestimated.

At the level of political life ("political corruption")

Attaining political influence through illegal means contributes greatly to corruption, as a way of rewarding political allies, client structure and relatives. It is alarming to witness that people choose to enter political life mainly with the intention of gaining power to secure wealth.

At the level of private and semipublic sphere ("business corruption")

No one knows how much corruption there is in the business world, and to what extent it is increasing.

Bribery and kickback have become common in free enterprise countries, including Malaysia. Democracy creates opportunity for corruption as competing political parties seek campaign contributions. Development projects may be valuable for graft opportunities than the direct benefits. Private corporations have great incentive to go along with bribe solicitations since contracts offer tens, hundreds and even billions of ringgit for military supplies, aircrafts, civil works and communication.

Elements in corrupt practice

Several elements are always present in corrupt practices. The interested parties involved, the corrupt intent and action, the proceed and the repercussion.

- The interested parties with vested interests that form a pact to commit the corrupt act.

- The corrupt intent and action to gain the dishonest income using position of power and
trust, active and passive briberies, breach of trust and nepotism.

- The proceed of corruption can be in the forms of money, benefit, kind and nepotism.

- The repercussion of corrupt practices leading to abuse of public funds, retardation of
economic developments, poverty, disregard of public safety, collapse of institutions, erosion of
country's economic well being, etc.


What do you say ?