COMMENT | Support letters - when you have to be corrupt to survive
COMMENT | Surely it cannot get any worse. To win a youth chief contest within his party, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal told his party members that he will help issue “surat sokongan” (support letters) in return for their votes.
In clear terms, he said he would use his position as deputy minister to issue support letters to help his party members.
This was a leaked video. We could presume there were some elements of embarrassment and shame to it. There are many things politicians do behind closed doors that are horrible when revealed to the public. Surely this is one of them.
But, no. After he won his position as Bersatu youth chief, he defended what he said. To him, helping party members in this manner was acceptable. He did not do anything that violated the laws.
This is a pattern. When his contender was found to have written a letter asking for state government-linked company positions, his first reaction was unusual.
Instead of condemning this practice, he said people should not be...
COMMENT | Surely it cannot get any worse. To win a youth chief contest within his party, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal told his party members that he will help issue “surat sokongan” (support letters) in return for their votes.
In clear terms, he said he would use his position as deputy minister to issue support letters to help his party members.
This was a leaked video. We could presume there were some elements of embarrassment and shame to it. There are many things politicians do behind closed doors that are horrible when revealed to the public. Surely this is one of them.
But, no. After he won his position as Bersatu youth chief, he defended what he said. To him, helping party members in this manner was acceptable. He did not do anything that violated the laws.
This is a pattern. When his contender was found to have written a letter asking for state government-linked company positions, his first reaction was unusual.
Instead of condemning this practice, he said people should not be disclosing private letters. This is a strange reaction to something rather straightforward for any true reformist.
When asked if this was one of the contributing reasons for his victory as Bersatu Youth chief, he said there were many other reasons. If the implication is that the promise of issuing support letters was even a small contributing factor, then the party has endorsed this practice by voting him in, and a culture of corruption is put on a pedestal.
Corruption of values
Corruption here does not imply the involvement of any money. It means the destruction of our values. Promising a private extraction of opportunity from the public space goes against the notion of fair play and equality.
If a political party's youth chief can use his position as deputy minister (a government position meant to act in the public interest) to enable a party member (a private citizen) obtain personal and private benefits, then this is a corruption of our values. Other private citizens who are not party members or are not close to any minister in power will lose out.
The country would suffer not only from inefficiency, but it will also suffer in terms of fairness. Over time, people will lose trust in our institutions and their processes such as tendering for projects.
Out of desperation, more and more people will try to buy their way close to the people in power as the only way of securing a project they deserve under the normal rules of the game.
It is widely alleged that support letters were an old BN practice. That is why the previous Pakatan Harapan government was intent on avoiding this practice entirely.
Former domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Saifuddin Nasution had sternly warned against this practice when he was in charge.
He said that any government that is serious about eliminating corruption must avoid support letters even though this was not technically illegal.
Saifuddin said that was why no one should ever expect a single support letter coming out of his ministry.
Ethics must matter too
A country is not ruled only by its laws. We are not just robots. A country works because there are values that everyone accepts as important.
That is why even though support letters are not technically illegal, it should be something that our society rejects because it corrupts our deeply-held values. It is repulsive to our senses.
But that is not the most saddening part of this episode.
To me, this entire episode has shown us how deep corruption has seeped into our culture – no one cares to hide it anymore.
And this is the new rules of the game. Everyone is doing it, and if you do not, then you will not survive.
Anyone who endorses this culture is personally responsible for contributing to the country’s rot. But we cannot deny the fact that the circumstances of our politics have become so toxic that even our young and idealistic politicians are not spared.
Once the bearers of a brighter future, young politicians are now choosing a darker past.
Unsurprisingly, this happened in Bersatu. The party was formed with a brittle goal of removing Najib from the government.
Once the corruption's light turned green, all hell broke loose. Promises and favours were rampant in the largest party-hopping exercise we have seen in history.
Persuasion in the form of ideas and policies are no longer enough. Now you need to give something - positions, influence and money.
Every day, politicians are counting the number of their peers that they have on their side, and what else they could offer. No one seems to care about what politicians could do for ordinary Malaysians. They only care about interest and power.
The point about a support letter is not its legality. It is about ethics. And ethics is that thing that bothers us inside our chests.
All of us have a moral obligation to speak out against something deeply unethical.
JAMES CHAI is a legal consultant and researcher working for Invoke, among others. He also blogs at jameschai.com.my. You may reach him at jameschai.mpuk@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
