news feature

In Manipur, Indian separatist rebels in the countrys northeastern state have taken to shooting examination cheats in the leg in a draconian attempt to clean up the education system, said an AFP news report last week.

In Malaysia, we keep cheats on as, among others, chairperson of the national savings banks.

The lead story in Malaysian dailies last week was on election breaches and money politics. Umno headquarters had released the names of 27 of its members who had appealed against the 2001 decision by the party disciplinary board over allegations of breaching election ethics by indulging in money politics.

Bank Simpanan National head-honcho Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi is among those involved. Azim had been an Umno Supreme Council member for the past two years.

However, the prime minister is quoted on the front page of The Star on March 13 as saying that Azims position in BSN has not been affected, that only his party posts were involved and not the corporate position.

And among those guilty as charged were a few illustrious Umno Datuk .

Graft-free Selangor

In a follow-up to the above, Kumpulan Aktivis Media Independen organised a forum entitled, Towards a Selangor that is Free of Corruption.

The panelists included PAS state assembly representative Solehen Mukhyi, DAP Youth chief Teng Chang Kim, PRM vice-president R Sivarasa, and media activist-cum-publisher Ahmad Lutfi Othman. The forum was chaired by PAS vice-president Dr Hasan Mohd Ali.

Held at a Kuala Lumpur hotel on March 19 and scheduled for 8pm, it had to be postponed until 9.20pm for the crowd to come, which in the end numbered 30. The forum had catered for 150 people.

Following numerous attempts to right the many wrongs taking place in Selangor, the 20-member Kami said it is literally hitting its head against a brick wall when it comes to exposing corruption in high places. Kami chief Lutfi said despite meetings with Suhakam on four occasions to express their grouses over not being allowed to publish news magazines exposing graft practices within the ruling elite, there has only been inaction of the commissions part.

Kami has also spoken to the Home Ministry, over the injustice and second-fiddling of opposition publications, also to no avail. A meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi drew a blank as well.

We are dealing with more than media independence, said Lutfi. We are concerned over the welfare of Selangor which is the richest and most prosperous state in the country.

Prosperity breeds corruption

Said PAS Hasan: By 2005, Selangor would become an industrialised state, opening the door to more corruption. The countrys top leader would be ensnared by the growth of wealth in the state, and greed would spread to the grassroots, he warned.

DAPs Teng spoke on the many corrupt menteris besar of Selangor from the days of Harun Idris in the early 1970s.

Former Menteri Besar Muhamad Muhamad Taib was caught walking through customs in Australia with RM2.4 million. He was charged but was let off on a technicality  he could not speak English, said Teng. The current Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Agency. So far no details of the investigation has been forthcoming from the ACA.

The Khir Toyo corruption scandal was brought to light by Lutfi who said he came into possession of several documents implicating the menteri besar in land and property purchased by him or deals given to close associates.

Lutfi said that instead of giving encouragement, ACA officers told him to think twice before making accusations of corruption, especially when it involves a menteri besar.

So much for the former director-generals assurance that they investigate without fear or favour. ( The Star , May 4, 1999)

Powerful but powerless

According to lawyer Sivarasa, an amendment to the Anti-corruption Act has been passed in Parliament in 1997. The amended Act gives ACA the powers to not only investigate corruption, but also to take action against the practitioners.

The powers are more than sufficient, said Sivarasa. In fact, ACA had more powers in dealing with corruption than the police do in criminal cases, he added.

For example, when police question a suspect, the latter has the right to remain silent. But this is not so when ACA officials question a suspect. The suspect is obligated to respond.

Sivarasa, however, lamented over the lack of political will to curb corruption in the country. There are no checks and balances, he said.

PAS representative for Sungai Besar, Solehen said corruption persists from the tip of Perlis to the toe of Johor. It is not a question of race, religion or descent. It is all-encompassing, he explained.

The speakers concurred that time again there has been proof of corruption among the ruling elite but the ACA has remained inactive.

Forum chairperson Hasan said, ACA catches the fish fry but lets loose the many sharks abound in the deep waters.

He also claimed that ACAs investigation papers on Khir have been completed and have reached the prime ministers desk. But there is no way to confirm this, as even the media are kept in the dark as to the outcome of many high-profile corruption cases, he said.

The peril of the informant

The first question that is asked when proof of corruption is presented to ACA is: Who was the informant? It is not the person implicated in the allegations that comes into the ACAs focus, but how the informant came about such information, said Lutfi, speaking from experience.

In a democratic country, attempts to expose graft are usually successful. The newspapers latch on to the issue and it is brought up in Parliament or Congress and the culprits are brought to the book.

But not in this country.

Our hand are tied, our ears are closed and eyes shut when it comes to matter of corruption, said Sivarasa. Media blackouts and denials from high places are what we get, he added.

This leaves the people of this country helpless. It makes us feel that change is impossible. And this is exactly the motive of the ruling elite, said Sivarasa.

Separation of state and religion

Corruption is not merely the receipt of money in return for favours granted. It also includes the distribution of money, gifts and favours in the attempt to woo voters, for example.

If you want to land a big-money project, sign up with a particular political party  even this is corruption, said Hasan.

The reason behind the increased occurrence of corruption is partly due to the separation of state from religion, said PAS Solehen. Rasuah in politics is not linked to dosa (sin) so the politicians are unafraid.

Selangor has become synonymous with corruption, said Solehen. We need a change of government, he urged, saying corruption will bring the downfall of civilisation if citizens do not rise against it.

Hasan added: The current system protects the corrupt.

Public accounts committee

Teng advocated a monitoring mechanism to make sure that transparency and accountability are maintained at all times. For one, there should be a public accounts committee helmed by the opposition parliamentary leader.

In addition, all parliamentary sessions must be open to the public and telecast live.

The current laws must be amended to enable the ACA to investigate and make sure that election candidates are clean. There must be a screening process and ACA should be made to issue a certificate declaring that candidates are free of corruption.

Elections candidates must publicly declare their assets, and not just to the menteri besar and prime minister.

These suggestions are supported by all the parties within the opposition front, Barisan Alternatif.

Ban on anti-graft media

The media may play a crucial role in this anti-graft campaign through opposition organs. Malaysians cannot rely on the Umno-controlled New Straits Times and the MCA-controlled The Star , Lutfi said, and called on the mainstream newspaper publications to be honest.

Action and information are two ways to combat graft. Action relates to expose of corruption practices in high places by reporting them to the police, the ACA, and in the newspapers. Sivarasa urged the public to file complaints en masse if they have proof of wrongdoing by politicians.

Public awareness must be increased, he said. However, this would be an uphill battle as the government imposes bans on publication that carry graft expose. We have no choice but to go door to door to distribute the information we have on corruption, said Sivarasa, adding that such publications must be made available in all languages.

Corruption Perception Index

Malaysia is 36th in the world Corruption Perception Index 2001. Malaysia scores five points in the ranking that ranges from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean), as rated by Transparency International.

Malaysias placing on the CPI has steadily but surely declined over the years. We were ranked 23rd with a score of 5.28 points in 1995.

But up or down, it is within reason to conclude that the rating will not even as much as raise a local politicians eyebrow as money politics has today become synonymous with Malaysian politics.

A check with the Anti-Corruption Agency on updates on a couple of still pending investigations drew a blank public information bureau who, very politely, said they handled public education programmes, and that updates on cases were out of their hands. Although the ACA website

provides a link to corruption statistics, a click of the mouse led to the page is not found. The ACA official spoken to who explained that they had been instructed not to divulge the statistics due to security reasons was too afraid to even to state her name.

And in November last year, the ACA said it was not required to inform the public whether investigations have been carried out against individuals.

Recent landmarks cases under investigation by ACA include that of Perwaja Steel failing to remit EPF payment; the Selangor Menteri Besar fighting graft allegation, allegations of corruption involving International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz, and former Melaka Chief Minister Rahim Tamby Chik

On Feb 2, 2001, national newspaper headlines screamed Top PUNB execs behind RM19bil bond scam. Several top executives of Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad (PUNB) are alleged to be behind the US$5bil (RM19bil) bond scam under investigation by the ACA. The executives had not gotten approval from the ministry to issue the bonds.

The ACA probe began in the third quarter of 2000. In February 2001, ACA director of investigation Saha Abdul Rahman reportedly said, We are still investigating. Just bear with us.''

(PUNB is a statutory trust agency created to help bumiputra entrepreneurs. The fund acts like a private company but receives soft loans from the government to carry out its activities. In a statutory agency, government officials would likely sit on the company's board.)

The investigation of the scandal is top secret by ACA standards.