MP SPEAKS | In 1979 at the Umno General Assembly, the then prime minister Hussein Onn warned that Malaysia would be destroyed if its leaders were “dishonest, untrustworthy and corrupt” and expressed the hope that the Bank Rakyat scandal would be a “bitter lesson to other government institutions and agencies, including companies and subsidiaries set up by the government”.

However, his warning 43 years ago has fallen on deaf ears and will be proven true before Malaysia’s centennial if there is no reset of nation-building policies and principles to get out of the present trajectory of kleptocracy.

Four things reminded me of Hussein’s warning 43 years ago...