Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has spoken out again against corruption, almost synonymous with Malaysian politics and his own party Umno.

He also raised eyebrows when offering insight into how cash changed hands - a dreary look into the inner workings of a political party and the corrupt.

"No domain seems safe. Some say that the humble school canteen is the domain of party branch chiefs.

"The golf course becomes a favoured way to pass the cash over. We can place bets for RM5,000 a hole. For some reason, one party keeps losing. And there are 18 holes. Money thus obtained is legal. It can be banked (in)," he said.

azlan When giving his speech to launch former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) chief Shafee Yahaya's memoirs, Razaleigh ( left ) also recounted his days back when he was finance minister.

He told the audience of 300 - mainly retired civil servants - of the government's past fascination with the Exocet missile, which comes at a price tag of RM2 million a piece.

"As minister, I had to sign each time the military fired an Exocet missile for testing. Every time we test-fired one of them, RM2 million literally went out with a bang.

"When the UK went to war against Argentina, the UK government tried to borrow them from us because outside of the UK, we had the most of them in the world. We must have been under some extraordinary military threat which I did not understand," he quipped.

‘Nation with no consequences’

The Kelantan prince, fondly known as ‘Ku Li’ also said that corruption is the real reason why political parties refuse to reform.

"And government servants have to face pressure from politicians who expect to be given these contracts because they need money for politics. This corruption is justified because the party's struggle is sacred. The civil servants can either join the game, or be bypassed," he said.

He also spoke of beefing up the legislation to combat corruption, calling for an array of laws including one to regulate donations to political parties and to repeal the Official Secrets Act so that the rakyat can speak up without fear.

"Another idea is that we should freeze the bank accounts of people who are being investigated for corruption... This may sound harsh, but only because we live in a country in which almost no one ever gets nabbed for corruption. In China, those found guilty are shot," he said.

NONE Calling the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) one that has produced no results, he said that they may end up a mere public relation exercise, as they just take bits and pieces of Hong Kong's widely successful Independent Commission Against Corruption instead of adopting the model wholesale.

"In Malaysia, we read about MACC investigating this and that, but there are no convictions. No one has (ever) been punished. We are a nation with no consequences," he said.

The book ‘The Shafee Yahaya's Story: Estate Boy to ACA Chief’ is a memoir describing his meteoric rise as a graft czar, penned by his wife, Kalsom Taib.

Shafee was most famously known after testifying in the High Court 10 years ago that he had found wads of cash in former Economic Planning Unit head Ali Abdul Hassan’s drawer when the ACA (Anti-Corruption Agency) raided his home back in 1998.

He told the court that then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had ordered him to close the file on the ACA investigation.

Ku Li on corruption and Exocet missiles