“It’s a question of political will. You keep all the tools you have with you to help keep you in power. And that’s when political will goes out the window.”

– Terence Gomez, political economy professor

COMMENT | The allegations of the plutocrat or criminal class colluding with the MACC for mutual benefit are as real as it gets here in Malaysia.

Mind you, I really would not call this a corporate mafia, but more accurately a disparate “criminal adjacent cabal” allegedly colluding with an institution that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim places much faith in.

We have heard these allegations before when it comes to the police. All you have to do is look at the Copgate affair, where two inspector-generals of police - Musa Hassan and Abdul Hamid Bador - had a battle royale.

Here is a snippet that gives us an inkling of the nexus between the security services and organised crime - “Tengku Goh is reportedly an underworld boss who enjoyed Musa’s backing when Musa was Johor police chief.

“Musa was said to have eliminated all loan sharks, money-laundering syndicates, gaming and drug syndicates and crime lords in Johor, but allowed Tengku Goh to continue operating - until the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department found out about Goh’s activities.”

Of course, none of this could go on without the aid of the political class, which is supposed to be a check and balance when it comes to the state security apparatus.

But politicians are the worst, and it is not me saying this but...