The Malaysian political scene at the national level is heated up with so much action and drama. The accusations and denials involve both Pakatan Rakyat and the Barisan Nasional.

One such accusation is that ‘Barisan has paid millions to the three Pakatan Rakyat state assemblypersons in Perak’. It easy to hurl accusations. However, no proof was produced. Until concrete evidence is produced, the related authorities could not be blamed for inaction.

On Feb 25, two other Pakatan Rakyat state reps claimed and made reports to the authorities that they were offered bribes to switch political camps. We do not know how far this is true.

Last week, Anwar Ibrahim claimed that he has video proof that his party assemblypersons were offered bribes. This news is quite flimsy and ambiguous. It could be due to his preoccupation with his sodomy case trial.

Another interesting case is that of Dr Chua Soi Lek’s sex scandal last year. He was caught on camera having sex with his girlfriend. The copy of that recording was believed to have been circulated amongst MCA members. It is widely believed that this is the work of his political foes within MCA. Eventually, he had to vacate his ministerial post.

However, in the fourth quarter of last year, he made a tremendous comeback when he was elected as the deputy president of MCA. It could be assumed that some sympathy votes helped him. However, MCA president Datuk Ong Tee Kiat did not consider him for any cabinet post.

Unexpectedly, the same video scandal has now taken a new shape. He is now being investigated for oral sex. Many of his sympathisers question as to why this charge was brought up only now when the video surfaced a full year ago.

There are only question marks in this scandal with vague answers.

Then S Samy Vellu, the president of MIC for more than 30 whopping years was pulled up by the MACC and the police. It was regarding the financial discrepancies and irregularities involving the party’s education arm MIED.

The findings of the investigation are still unknown. He was also implicated in the failure of Maika Holdings.

Meanwhile, Selangor (under Pakatan Rakyat), too, had its share of scandals. The nude pictures of state assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong were circulated to the public and also uploaded onto the Internet.

It is said that her boyfriend took those pictures while she was sleeping in her bedroom. If this is true, I condemn her boyfriend for being immoral and for being a criminal by intruding into the privacy and outraging the modesty of Elizabeth Wong. Wong, too, should be partially blamed for having a third party stay in her room with no legal relationship between them.

Wong has offered to resign from her position in the Selangor state government exco. However, leaders of Pakatan Rakyat are holding on as yet. This is mainly to avoid another by-election.

The Sultan of Selangor has left Wong’s fate to be decided by the menteri besar himself. That was a good move by His Highness. Now, it is left to the MB to decide. No matter what he decides, it would a loss for Pakatan Rakyat.

Even the menteri besar of Selangor himself was caught in an alleged scandal. He was accused of irregularities in his claim for the maintenance of his luxury car.

He was also accused of diverting cattle bought for Selangor to his own constituency of Bandar Tun Abdul Razak which is in Kuala Lumpur. The ‘instigation’ is still in process.

Until now, Umno leaders have not be in the limelight. However, 45 cases related to Umno members have been closed by the MACC due to insufficient concrete evidence. Let us wait and see the coming Umno general assembly due this March.

It is widely understood that Pak Lah would give way to his deputy Najib Abdul Razak. It is expected that all party posts, except for that of the president, would be intensely contested during which time some of the scandals involving those who are contesting might crop up.

Corruption and bribery charges are quite difficult to prove today as there are so many ways a transfer of funds could be done. There are also various ‘substitutes’ for funds which makes bribery further more difficult to prove.

The effective way of eradicating corruption and avoiding scandals is to use our conscience and give due honour and care to the position entrusted to us.