COMMENT I am asking this question, “Can we still afford corruption at the state-level?”

Before anyone starts interpreting this as being ‘naïve’, let me qualify my statement by saying that I am now focusing on state-level corruption involving land matters and natural resources, following the bauxite controversy in Pahang and the arrest of several land officers by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

We have already seen what happened in Sarawak during the two decade-long reign of former chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. Much of the state’s rainforests are now gone forever, but Taib is still free and holding an even more senior position as its Yang DiPertua Negeri.

The people who suffer are the state’s own bumiputera, who continue to give the BN administration votes even after they have been exploited.