'Can Umnoputras change their values, norms, and belief system which the party cadres subscribed to after so many years of enjoying the easy money? You must be kidding to believe they can.'

Ku Li on corruption and Exocet missiles

Man: Razaleigh Hamzah, this is indeed a brilliant and courageous piece. I salute you. I now appeal to all responsible media to translate your writing in all languages and dialects and disseminate this truth.

All responsible political parties too must do likewise and ensure that this simple, straight forward and honest piece of writing is mass mailed and if possible, even air-dropped on all townships. Then we are on the road to save Malaysia.

Otherwise, this will be yet another ‘I told you so' story.

Smile: A senior air forces officer relate to me that he was offered a huge sum of money by a contractor to accept a substandard spare part. He politely refused it by saying, "Sir, if I were to accept your offer, just think of those poor people in the kampongs who have to struggle to make a decent living as result of high cost of living due to rampant abuse of our nation wealth."

I appeal to all government personnel, politicians and MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) officers to emulate this officer's wisdom. Corruption is more dangerous than cancer since it affect the rakyat livelihood and destroy our generation's future with high crime rate and loss of the nation's competitiveness.

The intended subsidy cuts and Goods and Service Tax can be offset by reduction in corruption. Idris Jala should caution us that Malaysia will be a bankrupt country if corruption is not contained.

Habib RAK: Dear Ku Li, we all know this already. This has been exposed by the likes of you and many others. The more important question is why aren't you leading an NGO that will champion against corruption. If Mahathir can mobilise Perkasa, I'm sure you can mobilise MAC (Movement Against Corruption).

Ferdtan: Ku Li, well said. One question, what are you doing about it as you are still a respectable member of the ruling party?

Anwar Ibrahim, on the other hand, has been changed by circumstances to fight for a better Malaysia. He has suffered greatly and was in jail for many years from unjust persecution. Any man of lesser character would have given up the struggle.

Ku Li, can you come down from your comfort zone and join in the struggle too? All your erudite analysis of the ills of the government will not go away until you lend your hand in the fight.

Malaysian: Good speech, but I fear it is already too late for Malaysia. It was unfortunate that Anwar sided with Dr Mahathir Mohamad back in 1987, thus giving him a free hand to run the country to the ground.

I'm not sure if Ku Li would have been better, though. At least he shows signs that he knows that Umno has ruined the country while Mahathir is still trying to play the Malays against the non-Malays.

Singa Pura Pura: My dear Tengku Razaleigh, time is not on your side, and so I find it exigent to ask you, yet again, what the ‘hell' you are doing dilly-dallying there in the ravaged outskirts of Umno. (Please excuse me the uncustomary severity of my language.)

The Umno you once knew and lived by died on Feb 4, 1988. What is left of it today is the unburied carcass of the original struggle. The wandering soul, as you would well know, had left the body, and was once nicknamed the Spirit of 46.

Fairplayer: At least Ku Li talks and makes noise like you and I. It would be worse if he keeps silence and let the rot sink and stink deeper. I salute him for his honesty.

Sarajun Hoda: Tengku Razaleigh's speeches are always hard hitting but the BN government is deaf, dumb and blind. You can repeat that until cows come home but BN will not listen and the civil servants will continue to accept corrupted leaders as gods and become their slaves. We revere Tengku, but unfortunately such leaders are not corrupted enough to become minister.

Magnus: As is to be expected, another good and sensible speech from TRH (Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah). Umno would be wise to listen to him and elect him as leader if it wants to survive after the critical mass of the rakyat in the towns and rural areas in both East and West Malaysia come to know about all the evil corruption that has been going on wholesale.

Were it up to me (which it clearly is not), I would plug the governance system's gaping loopholes the first opportunity I have:

1. The OSA (Official Secrets Act) has a valid raison d'etre, but only when it is responsibly used.

2. Political party funding should as a matter of course be strictly controlled. So provide state funding based on some agreed formula and allow registered parties to raise funds from private donors but limit the amount given by anyone to say, no more than RM1,000 in cash donation with all other benefits in kind declared in a public register.

3. Enact a Whistleblower Act (to protect public and private sector employees); a Bribery Act (to catch any individual or corporate entity who tries to manipulate and divert the course of the governance process for personal/corporate gain) and a Freedom of Information Act (for open access to information by the rakyat and to vet OSA use).

4. Get rid of MACC as it will not work because it is set up to fail.

5. Take the attorney-general and auditor-general out of the executive branch of governance but leave the solicitor-general and subordinate DPPs (deputy public prosecutors) in.

6. Create a new independent institution with both AGs in it at same matrix level of authority.

7. Put a new MACC under the auditor-general and give him or her the power to order investigations into cases of potential corruption.

8. The attorney-general will do housekeeping of the national statute book and recommend to a parliamentary select committee those laws that should be repealed and will also initiate prosecutions recommended by the auditor-general, and also act as a veto and check on spurious prosecutions initiated by the executive's legal officers.

9. Both of the AGs will report directly to Parliament and also produce a free access annual report to the rakyat for general information.

Fido Dido: Ku Li, you have many times said bad governance indulging into corruption is the evil root that plaque Malaysia and the rakyat. Unfortunately, the Umno leadership is not taking any cue from what you say.

So to be effective and with reform in your conscience, please come over to Pakatan Rakyat. You still have the ‘oomph', so cross over. The poor rakyat needs your service. After all, you are not contributing to Umno.

Cala: Despite Prime Minister Najib Razak's exhortation of 1Malaysia and NEM, nothing is going to change unless Umno is changed from within. The truth is change is not going to drop from the sky for Najib and Ku Li. It has to do with change of culture, the way members see things around them, the value system, and about the correct manner of wealth accumulation.

Can Umnoputras change their values, norms, and belief system which the party cadres subscribed to after so many years of enjoying the easy money? You must be kidding to believe they can.

To be fair, you cannot expect any miracle from Ku Li. Ku Li is only one of us. By himself, he will not be able to change a monster that is a habitual plunderer of national resources. If change is so easy how do you explain that there are only a handful of First World nations? We have to see his contribution in positive light (feeble as it is).

Over time, it will help build up the critical mass. The tipping point is nowhere in sight, but when it comes, you will be surprised to see another political tsunami may well force the change of government. Take his contribution as empirical evidence from an insider.

Sarawakian: "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."

Now I know why our politicians and top civil servants spent so much time on the golf courses.

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