I refer to the Malaysiakini report MACC chief: Kick my ass if I'm wrong .

I was shocked and I thought that I was wrong when I read that the current MACC chief wants his butt kicked if he does not perform in his task as the nation's number one corruption-buster. It seemed more of a public relations gimmick which we Malaysians are so used to hearing from the heads of departments and ministries to the head of the cabinet himself.

But as to whether they mean what they say, is another story all together. Given the fact that our appellate court is so predictable and complaint to the directives of the executive, these heads of departments which will include the MACC chief will usually not held to their word.

The first thing that he must seek to do is to ensure that the MACCis truly independent of the Prime Minister’s Department and is answerable to the people directly. Even though the MACC is made answerable to Parliament, with a system like Malaysia's one-coalition system which only sees one party is power for decades, the MACC can never be effective.

The power and the bite will only be felt if the MACC can transcend race, religion and political patronage. Is the new MACC boss sure that he can do that? He seems to be asking for time but how much more time does he need?

Let’s take the current case of Hasbie Satar, the political secretary to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop. By the looks of it, he has resigned and I don't think that his boss will be brought in for questioning either because of his ‘right allegiance’ in the cabinet. Therefore how effective can the MACC be?

And judging from how fast the cases against tseveral Pakatan Rakyat members of Parliament and assembly persons were dropped after the Federal Court decided to give Perak to the 'bandits', what the MACC boss says is just akin to water off a duck's back.

I would like to see the day when our corruption fighters will be able to come up to the standard of their Hong Kong counterparts. Is independence within their horizon? Not really.