'Sewage management company Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK) is the main polluter of rivers in Peninsular Malaysia,' so stated a recent media report. The statement was attributed to none other than the Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Azmi Khalid himself.

The question that pops into my mind is how come the good minister only knew about this disastrous fact now? After all, he is the minister and the proverbial buck stops with him. Well, we have been always been stricken by the 'one-eye closed' syndrome.

Our dear minister has now pushed the buck to another ministry; meanwhile the excreta pouring into our rivers will continue unabatedly.

Ninety-one percent of our rivers in the Peninsula have been laden with raw sewage courtesy of IWK, an entity, if I remember correctly, was hailed as the poster boy of how privatisation should be undertaken in the 1990s. This is one baby old man Dr Mahathir Mohamad must take the blame for.

Fine poster boy it is. IWK was very indignant when thousands of households refused to pay for their 'services', branding these Malaysians as irresponsible and uncivil, for allegedly not paying for the hard work IWK is doing is protecting our environment and keeping our rivers clean.

I have not paid them any money and I never will. Apparently, these incompetents are no better than the latrine cleaners of old pouring sewage into rivers. At least in the old days, the latrine cleaners knew no better.

In this day and age, what IWK is doing is a criminal act under the guise of responsibility and good corporate governance. The sad thing is IWK will ultimately get away with this with a mere slap on the wrist.

This is how things are done in Malaysia. Meanwhile, our rivers continue to drown in sewage. Fine sight for our foreign visitors when they go on a river cruise.