Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, not long after taking over the helm of the country last November, declared corruption to be public enemy No. 1 and promised to fight the menace to the core.

This declaration has amounted to indirect admission that corruption was a menace throughout the 22-year rule of his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

It also serves to confirm what Malaysians and the international community have perceived all along - that Mahathir's government had failed to act against corrupt politicians and public servants despite his pledge to foster 'clean, efficient and trustworthy'.

Malaysia has since been consistently listed among countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America that are ranked as having done little to stem corruption.

Although 'small fry'like police and army personnel, government clerks and peons were among those prosecuted for corruption under the Mahathir government, rarely were politicians and government servants brought to justice.

Abdullah promised to act aggressively and decisively against corrupt practices, but the 'sharks' still swim unchecked. We say to Abdullah: Walk your talk, please!

'Guided missiles'

Abdullah has recently been pointing his 'guided missiles' at the privatisation programme, which was the hallmark of the former premier's government policies.

His deputy, Najib Abdul Razak, launched an early assault on the programme earlier this month, when he was quoted as saying that the authorities intended "to review some contracts between the Malaysian government and private businesspeople which were lopsided against the government" ( The Asian Wall Street Journal, Aug 3, 2004).

If the report is accurate, this is the first ever open admission by a high-ranking leader that Malaysia's often criticised privatisation programme is akin to daylight robbery.

The blame, of course, falls flatly on the former premier as the privatisation programme was his baby. Thus far, there has been no rebuttal from him.

Najib's statement has sent shock waves through the business community, which fears that the government might abandon unfavourable contract terms.

However, Abdullah then said the government would respect the sanctity of contracts and that it will use moral suasion to get lopsided terms annulled. In other words, terms that are unfavourable to the government will only be removed if both parties agree to this.

The big question is: Who would be stupid enough to give up guaranteed long-term lucrative contracts? In this respect, Abdullah's approach is destined to fail from its inception.

The fact that unfavourable terms exist only goes to show that the Mahathir-led government made decisions without the public interest in mind. Although many parties have raised the issue time and again in the past, it is only now that the government had admitted there is a problem.

The concept of privatisation looks beautiful on paper ,but implementation has led to widespread practice of crony-capitalism. Top leaders have found it convenient to award contracts to companies and individuals closely linked to ruling political parties, relatives, supporters and friends.

There has been no transparency in the awarding of contracts, no public scrutiny and no open tenders. As a result, money politics has become widespread - the free flow of 'bad money' from privatisation has oiled the unsatiable desire of some politicians to buy their way into power.

Old habits

When he took over, Abdullah promised to do away with the practice of political favouritism.

He said contracts would be awarded on open tender basis to promote competition and save public funds. More than nine months have passed but his promise remains a hollow one. Old ways still rule. Old habits die hard, as they say.

Last December, Abdullah suspended indefinitely the RM14.5 billion railway double-tracking project which Mahathir had awarded to a consortium belonging to a close associates just a month before he stepped down.

Abdullah was thus seen as sending a message to the public that he was a firm premier bent on rooting out political favouritism and crony-capitalism.

Evidently, however, this was only a drama staged to prop up Abdullah's clean image in the run-up to the 11th general election.

The government has claimed that the privatisation programme has saved the government RM7 billion annually (totalling RM132 billion since 1983).

However, the people have had to pay more for products and services of privatised entities, which have also transferred the cost of their inefficiency to consumers.

The owners of privatised entities do not lose anything as the contracts guarantee long-term lucrative profits. If profits fall short of target, the contractors expect the government to make good the shortfall.

Unfair transfers

On a bigger scale, there is unfair transfer of wealth to a small group of owners of privatised entities - creating super- rich individuals.

The government is a party to this because it has allowed lopsided terms to get into contracts in favour of these businesspeople.

As if that is not enough, the government has had to bail out privatised entities that have gone bust, including United Engineers Malaysia Bhd, an Umno-owned company, at a cost of RM3.8 billion.

Billions of ringgit have gone towards bailing out Malaysia Airlines and Indah Water Consortium, among other privatised entities.

Abdullah has now set his sights on Perusahaan Otomobil National Berhad (Proton), another of Mahathir's pet projects.

It has been reported that Abdullah was willing to agree to opening up the company to foreign partnership, going directly against Mahathir's stance that "Proton should remain a Malaysian-controlled company".

Ceding control to a foreign party could mean the end of the 'Proton' brand as well as change the company into what would effectively be "local assembly operations for a foreign model" ( The Asian Wall Street Journal , Aug 4).

In essence, the badly implemented privatisation programme and the government's carelessness in condoning lopsided contracts have resulted in unfair transfer of wealth to cronies.

Malaysians have been left to bear the burden. But as the ex-PM, perhaps Mahathir could not care less.

DR ROSLI YAAKOP, who holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin, is Negri Sembilan PAS commissioner.