Is the country now in the grip of lawlessness, and the solution is zero tolerance of corruption in whatever form it takes and regardless of who is the alleged culprit?

One would think so considering how the red shirts are creating pandemonium in the streets and assaulting Bersih activists. Still despite the prevalent mood of despair, the expose of institutionalised corruption continues unabated and it gives the people hope that evil will not triumph.

Those who thought they would get away with white collar crimes in their clandestine 'corporate heists' and conspiracies to defraud the nation did not expect they would be caught. Unlike the 1MDB fraud where all the prosecutions are done by foreign countries whose laws have been broken, the Sabah Water Corporation corruption case will be dealt with by local courts.

We know about the ones that got away because justice was not done and not seen to be done, so let's hope the judges will punish the culprits without fear or favour and acquit themselves as being above politics and undue influence. Sadly, the local investigations into the 1MDB have not produced any charges despite the incriminating evidence.

As long as citizens are proactive to right the wrongs of a country, whether in individually speaking out like Haris Ibrahim as a 'People's Parliament', or collectively during Bersih 5, corruption incurring the abuse of power to protect the 'corrupt ones' and their institutionalised crimes against the nation will not succeed.

All bad and corrupt governors have a 'use-by' date and sooner or later they will face their Waterloo and the wrath of the people and sharp edge of the law. We must not be afraid to speak out like John the Baptist against King Herod, whom he accused of sinning against God. In times when a country faces a moral lapse in its leadership, the people must act to save their nation.

I have lived in countries where citizens are encouraged to protect their freedoms and democracy by speaking out against corrupt politicians and I have lived in countries where doing the same noble thing is sedition. And I know which country is a true democracy and which is a false one.

Hope for change and good governance will not be extinguished for as long as the rakyat are alive and actively opposing corruption. And the rakyat's aspirations for free and fair elections will never die if more and more citizens walk the talk and not leave all the work to the altruistic and active few.

Those who have not read Gene Sharp's treatise on liberation 'From Dictatorship to Democracy' available free in the Internet ought to do so. Until all the props of a dictatorship - the police, the judiciary, the public servants, the honest politicians in power, the media, community leaders, business leaders and more, believe that a 'corruption-free' society is desirable and won't support the corrupt but bring them to book as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has sometimes done, dictators will continue to thrive in the decadence of silence.

Those who do nothing and resigned to corrupt governance or worse abet the 'corrupters' will get the government they deserve and condemn their children's children to a national meltdown. They condemn their country to fiscal collapse like what we saw in Greece and worse cause their citizens to become illegal fruit pickers, sex slaves and expatriate professionals.

Heroes of Bersih 5

For all our platitudes, the heroes of Bersih 5 - the leaders and ordinary citizens - who risk life and limb to traverse the country telling the country folks about the corruption in the country's electoral system can stand tall as they show the country the way and take the risks for every Malaysian.

They are walking the talk for reform. They remain the one outstanding act of organised patriotism that may yet make the difference. By abiding by their script of 'non-violence' and 'no retaliation' against the agent provocateurs, the Bersih activists have earned our respect and exposed the shame of their persecutors. They are on a fund-raising drive and I hope we will dig into our pockets to do our bit to save the country's electoral system.

The red shirts cowards who kicked and assaulted the Bersih biker assailed the country's freedom and democracy, if you look at it symbolically. The police did well in arresting them and only a conviction of criminal assault will see justice done. The police have to do more than react like how they acquitted themselves in Johor.

Not all the red shirts are rascals and some showed restraint and appeared to do the right thing but no one should join a crowd in doing wrong and lend credence to their lost cause. Wearing a red shirt to harass Bersih activists makes one a black sheep. It is un-Malaysian and unpatriotic, not to mention un-Islamic and also un-other religions, to be a black sheep.

Much has been said by the country's leaders of how important it is for unhappy and disgruntled citizens to make their point through the ballot box. How valid is that argument? Is there not more than a tinge of hypocrisy, even humbuggery?

How do you make the point when the ballot box shuts you out because it is rigged, unfair or brazenly corrupted - and voters will never be able to rid their country of a pesky leader in a fair and square election? No one expects a leader to step down from a Bersih protest but the point is the results of unfair elections will not remove him either.

Unfair electoral redelineations are a ploy to perpetuate the status quo through unfair elections. They say, "If the boundaries are unfair how did the opposition win?" But they forget the opposition won the popular vote in 2013 and might have won government if all was fair and square.

I am not suggesting the opposition is a coalition of angels and saints but at least the nation stands a better chance of getting positive results and accountability from what we observe of the states of Selangor and Penang under their governance. On the other hand, in Sabah, we may soon get a public auction of expensive handbags.

Indeed, if a leader is good why would anyone want him removed?

I don't believe any democratically elected leader should be coerced to step down. But in Malaysia it is the norm, the tradition and the indisputable precedent and part of party politics. The last one to be coerced to step down was the affable Pak Lah (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi). Still, there are exceptions to the norm. It is not that no leader has been forced out of office but how and by who and when and why. Why should a political party sack a leader but not the people?

Why would you not want to oust a leader who is brazenly corrupt?

The price we have to pay

Unfair elections are a fraud inflicted on a democracy and those who advocate reliance on the ballot box when it is dishonest are like snake oil salesmen. That is why there must be relentless efforts to effect electoral reforms or people will always get the leaders they don't want or deserve.

If we must pay a price for saving a nation so people will not have to suffer, why not? What life will you leave your children's children if they have to be like the Filipinos, Bangladeshis and other foreign workers who are separated from loved ones just to put food on the table. How did their countries end up like that?

Every failed democracy is the result of rigged elections and a corrupt political system led by a corrupt leader. When leaders prosper and strange money finds its way into their bank accounts, be sure the people will be impoverished. But protests must be done the ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Martin Luther’ way of peaceful, dignified and non-violent civil actions.

The government has had ample time to consider the demands for much-needed electoral reforms. Instead of improving the shortcomings and anomalies, the Electoral Commission has done the opposite and exacerbated the problems seen in the latest redelineations of electoral boundaries. It is a slap on the people's face and another 'broken promise'.

Democracy is a sham when some electorates have 100 times more voters than others and have no basis for such delineations than to give an unfair advantage to one political faction above another? It is utter fraud and calls for the electoral head to resign are not misplaced.

No one should doubt Malaysia is in the grip of an insidious evil and attracting the wrong sort of media scrutiny. Stealing the 1MDB people's money is a crime; should anyone be allowed to steal an election?

The video of red shirts assaulting a Bersih motorcyclist has enraged the public. The police have yet to appear entirely competent, credible and in charge when agent provocateurs mouth off more threats of physical violence and get away with attacks on Bersih activists.

Who are behind the red shirts? Why are such a disruptive and organised mob of blood-coloured troublemakers allowed to terrorise the Bersih activists going about their peaceful and democratic activities?

It makes the need for a National Security Council (NSC) Act a joke when you can't even stop a bunch of hooligans creating trouble and trying to stifle democracy ignoring existing laws.  Or maybe we expect too much from a developing country like Malaysia and should compare it with Zimbabwe.

The failure of the government in reining in marauding mobs whether in taking over public roads as the notorious 'mat rempits' or the present red shirts sends the wrong message to the public.

It conveys the idea that mob rule is above the rule of law. Anything else the leader may say about peace, order and security will sound like an empty gong if the red shirts are not stopped in harassing the Bersih activists and taking the law into their own hands.

It makes the public uncomfortable and suspect hidden hands are pulling the strings of the red shirts puppets. Why else would they exist simply to thwart the altruistic actions of the Bersih group? Why would anyone be against fair elections? It makes no sense unless you are part of the cartel of the corrupt.

Walk for your nation

Why is Bersh 5 important?

It is a non-partisan event. It is not anti-government. It is not to pick a fight with anyone. It is only anathema, disliked and hated by those who are corrupt because the demands of Bersih 5 are for the national good and are patently anti-corruption.

Fair elections enhance the reputation of a country's democracy and gives its government legitimacy and credibility. A corrupted electoral system denies the people the power of the ballot box and turns it into a ballot hoax.

Bersih 5 is for free and fair elections. And those who oppose it must oppose the election of a good government. They are traitorous to democracy. Bersih 5 participants are the fruit of patriotism and among the nation's most altruistic citizens.

Until the rules of the game are fair and the umpire honest, the political game is a fraud like the result of a fixed soccer match. Until the electoral boundaries and system guarantees a fair contest, they produce fixed results. The redelineations fail the 'fairness test' and should be re-delineated.

Fixed results guarantee the prolonged run of corrupt leaders. And the recent MACC bust in Sabah backed with the evidence of the horrendous loot of millions of hard currency, luxury cars, million-dollar jewellery, expensive handbags, etc, is only the tip of the iceberg.

Such high-level corruption is possible because they are given the unchecked power to plunder the nation. And that power is derived from the questionable electoral system that makes removing corrupt politicians en masse difficult. The time tor talking and complaining must soon come to an end and hopefully before the public pantry is bare.

The time for action is now.

Otherwise the writing is on the wall for the nation. And the least any citizen who values his or her vote, who wants to prevent it from going to waste because of alleged electoral defrauding, unfair redelineations and the political trickery, is for them to take to the streets with Bersih 5 and work on beyond until corrupt governance is history and the culpable, the government must know who they are, end in jail.

Walk for your nation with others or sit before your television alone in regret.

Saving your country must be like eating your meals, voting or having sex with your spouse - no one else can do it for you.

The Sabah bust by the MACC must not detract from the ongoing investigations into the 1MDB thievery. It is the tip of the corruption iceberg that will sink the nation. In a developed country, the culpable will be jailed for their crimes.

You can't be more direct than Donald Trump, who threatened to put Hillary Clinton in jail by appointing a special attorney to investigate charges if he becomes the next president. Will the opposition make the same threat to the corrupt against whom the evidence has piled waiting for its day in court?

What will the people do to save their country and stop the troublemakers and the thieves in high office? More importantly, what will the government given the public trust and people's power do with those allegedly culpable or found with the smoking gun of their wrongdoings? Not everyone in a government is corrupt but they must do the right thing or resign.

Any politician who thinks he can steal from the people and live happily ever after or escape the scorn of the people needs to see a shrink. Politicians who benefit from deals with government are different from those who steal outright from the government.

By now, the world knows the emperor has no clothes and it gets increasingly tough to defend the indefensible. It does look odd that so many foreign countries have charged the alleged culprits, yet the country which owns 1MDB has made the audit report an official secret and can only shoot blanks and charge citizens for sedition.

A good government will always be at the forefront of any initiative to improve the country's governance and quality of its democracy and be intolerant of corruption.

Bersih 5 is the cutting edge of that initiative. Like a David against Goliath, it will win because it is on the right side of history. That it will happen after Bersih 4 is proof. The chainsaw will soon be working and the tottering tree, termite-ridden will fall.

There is no future for corrupt leaders. There is no future for cowardice and apathy. That has to be the cry of the people. Zero tolerance of corrupt leaders or zero future for the nation - that is the new dilemma.

STEVE OH is the author of the novel ‘Tiger King of the Golden Jungle’ and composer of the musical of the same title. He believes in good governance and morally upright leaders.