Malaysia in its fifty-year history, despite its many achievements, has had more than its fair share of its name being dragged through the mud and being made the laughing stock of the world.

Many of these instances seem to have occurred in the recent past or maybe it is only because the recent past has seen a greater coverage due to the alternative press. In the fifty years, she has suffered the following reports:

  • A minister of education convicted of corruption and getting a foreign posting

  • An ambassador running away with a strip-tease dancer

  • A political murder by a minister

  • A central bank which lost RM1 billion trading in currency

  • A high officer caught with a million dollars in his suitcase

  • A high officer accused of sex with an underage girl

  • A very high officer paying a million dollars (government funds, no doubt) for a photo opportunity with a president he allegedly despises

  • A pretty foreign model blown to bits with her entry records into the country erased

  • A senior judge who allowed the defendants lawyer to write ‘his’ judgment

  • A senior judge who married a young bride under false pretences

  • Politicians switching parties for money

  • A government team who sets up a dubious website with a dubious photograph and uses these as references to present the country’s case to distinguished jurors in an international court

  • The head of the police and head of the anti-corruption agency accusing each other of corruption

  • Getting a space tour as a free gift for buying second rate defense equipment

  • A minister who incarcerated a politician for her own ‘safety’

  • The same minister incarcerated a reporter who reported a racist remark but the one who originally made the remarks escapes the law

    • …and countless cases of political, judicial, police and civil service corruption and inefficiency committed by men and women with overblown ambitions serving in politicised institutions.

    Now the country is about to face its worst case of mud-dragging. A deputy prime minister is slated to be the next prime minister. A deputy prime minister whose name has been associated with corruption and murder and power grabs.

    The issue of whether he is guilty of any or none, or to what degree is not the main issue. The plain fact is that he has not challenged and faced his accusers in court. Nothing less will clear a large section of the population’s doubt.

    Less than 40 percent of the public have confidence in him; if you take away the hangers-on and those benefitting from the political patronage, it will be less.

    All the foreign ambassadors in Malaysia must have reported to their foreign ministers by now, the accusations levied against the deputy prime minister. Major newspapers in France, the UK and Australia have already linked him to French defence contracts and the Altantuya murder.

    As he nears his ascension, regional papers and those around the world will take up the French defence contracts and murder story.

    In the near future, every time the new prime minister visits a country, the local papers doing a profile on him will dig up the scandals and its ambassador to Malaysia will likewise brief the head of state.

    The new prime minister knows that the person he is negotiating with knows the accusations. Does he look into the eyes of his host? Indeed, does he look into the eyes of his visitors?

    How can he negotiate confidently in the best interests of the country? Isn’t the country held to hostage?