COMMENT | At every social event I attend, talk will inevitably veer into politics.

“There are very few politicians who are clean. I think he is one of them,” I say.

The woman I am talking to is middle-aged, wealthy and successful. Her hair is curled in locks that disguise her age, her makeup simple, her speech polished. But even a person like her is not immune to political gossiping.

She leans to me and says, “Let me tell you something, young man: there is no clean politician. Zero.”

“Yes, but he is clean, I know that for a fact.”

“They surely take money from behind. Someone pays them.” She stares with eyes that urge me to believe her.

After all, why wouldn’t I?

Most of us perceive political parties to be “extremely corrupt”, according to Transparency International’s Malaysian Corruption Barometer (MCB).

This isn’t shocking, as Yale Law School professor Susan Rose-Ackerman has found that most people throughout history have been governed by corrupt rulers who placed personal financial interest above public good.

The late former British prime minister Winston Churchill famously said in 1947 that it would be “ridiculous” to expect the House of Commons to have no interests or associations of any kind...