The new prime minister wishes to crack down on corruption. Will he be able to do it?

We have with us a culture which provides fertile ground for corruption to thrive. This culture is the result of a flawed system of government.

Most of us have been brought up to believe (and accept) that our government has the unquestionable right to favour certain selected persons in pursuit of some noble goals that only the government knows best.

As such, only the most annoying opposition politician and ungrateful citizen will dare to question the government on policies where certain individuals or groups are given favours. And the government is not obliged to account. Most of the time, such questions are dismissed with cynicism or the questioners being accused of being ungrateful or being anti-national.

This culture has seeped to the lower rungs of government. Officials there also believe that they are beyond reproach. Hence, the prevalence of "close tenders" (the expression itself is a contradiction in term) purportedly to carry out certain goals of the government.

The fact is, if you are well-connected (in every sense of the word) you could become a beneficiary of some noble goals of the government and get contracts, permits, you name them.

Again, no one is to question such practices. We have to trust the government. After all, the party in government is returned to power every time. They can't be wrong. The people must approve of all these, otherwise they would not have returned the party to power time and time again.

During Dr Mahathir's time, it seems to everyone that as long as you have Dr M on your side, you are relatively, if not totally safe. Hence, we sometimes have corrupt politicians and bureaucrats clamouring for Dr M's attention. It is known that Dr M never quite approve of such things but in politics it is useful to have them.

The new PM must understand that all the hype about fighting corruption will come to nought unless he can ensure that there is transparency and accountability in all levels of government. The government must respond to all allegations of corruption, not send the persons making the allegations to jail.

The new PM must also accept that corruption is so rife in government that, at this moment, it will not be possible for it to police itself. There must be a truly independent body set up to fight corruption.

Otherwise, we will still be talking about fighting corruption until the cows come home.