Bishop Hwa Yung is now drawing a lot of flak for his council's decision to accept the government grant given on the eve of a by-election. I agree with his decision. As Barry Wain pointed in his book Malaysian Maverick we are living in a ‘party-state’.

The ‘party’ will disburse the ‘state’ funds as and when it deems fit. Favoured recipients can receive funds at any time of the year. The others (non-favoured) will have to wait till just before elections when they may or may not be given long-overdue funds.

The Methodist Church in Sibu is certainly entitled to receive funds from the state. But clearly, it is not a favoured member.

In the less ostentatious pre-Mahathir days, a community facing an impending by-election would be given crumbs in the form of road-rebuilding and other construction works. Should the community reject such gifts? Then their roads would remain in disrepair for many long years.

Someone said the money is tainted. But the funds come from either the taxpayer or the natural resources of the country so how can it be tainted? A tiny portion may be from taxation on the Genting Highland casino but few will take this as tainting the entire national treasury.

The bishop is about to launch his book Bribery and Corruption . I see courage in that. If those who approved a grant to his church did so to influence the votes of the Sibu Christians then they cannot be very happy with the bishop writing this book.

I appreciate the bishop trying to create awareness of the evils of corruption with his book. I do hope that greater public loathing of corruption will work to put down this evil. I'm not referring to the traffic cop around the corner taking bribes. This will not bring Malaysia to ruin.

It is the massive corruption among the political leaders that will ruin us eventually. I remain pessimistic about the possibility of change.

Because a change will mean a lot of politicians, past and present, being put in jail and having their wealth confiscated. No, they will avoid this by hook or by crook.