COMMENT l The sad irony of realpolitik is, those responsible for safeguarding the welfare of the people and entrusted with power to enforce laws and protect them often become lawbreakers and evade prosecution.

So when ex-minister Zainuddin Maidin asks , “How to nab someone with absolute immunity?” it strikes at the heart of the integrity of Malaysia's governance. It is indeed a body blow to the rule of law when "someone" enjoys "absolute immunity".

Whatever his past controversial record, like Dr Mahathir Mohamad's, it is hard to disagree with Zainuddin. On the basis of the evidence presented in the allegations in the many scandals the country faces, the public perception that "someone" enjoys "absolute immunity" is not unreasonable.

It is unusual for those investigated to unilaterally declare "case closed" when the hounds are still on the trail and the 1MDB story remains controversial and unresolved over vital matters such as the source of the RM2.6 billion "donation" that many allege looks more like a "smoking gun" damnation.

Innocent until proven guilty sounds cliche when those accused dig their own political graves with their ploys at hiding the truth. Such "political interference" - when investigations are still ongoing and the "overcooked" audit report has yet to come out of the oven - is unhelpful.

The public want the truth, not bare denials and spins and self-exonerations. Otherwise the police, the judicial system, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and other investigatory bodies, etc, are all irrelevant and a one-man government would have sufficed.

Zainuddin's snipe, incriminating the state of governance in the country, was in the wake of Sports and Youth Minister Khairy Jamaluddin's remarks that he hopes the culprits in the bauxite mining scandal will be brought to justice by MACC.

Malaysians have been hoping for a long time that those who have defrauded them in the mismanagement of their country will have faced justice by now. But the scandals keep piling one after another and it is always somebody else's fault, not that of the real culprits.

As a former insider, Zainuddin should know what he is talking about when he speaks of "absolute immunity". In essence, what he means is no one will face the music until the "Godfather of the Immune System" says so and allows it. No doubt the Godfather himself is absolutely immune.

Since the public scandals involving big losses of public monies and losses of lives made their appearance in the 1980s in the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal - a Malaysian accountant was murdered and an auditor committed suicide - nothing has changed.

In fact, the nature and scale of corruption have become worse. Justice delayed and truth suppressed will someday explode in a cataclysmic collapse of the corrupt and the dirty waters held by the broken dam of their wrongdoings will sweep them all away.

Malaysiakini writer Stephen Ng has written several exposé on the destruction of depleting rainforests, mangrove swamps and the infamous bauxite mining scandal but until there is concrete government action, such calls usually fall on deaf ears.

If there ever was a need for the sultans to intervene, it is when their states are being pillaged under their noses. Deforestation, decimation of wildlife habitats, pollution of rivers and seas, and so on.

Where are the 'sons of the soil'?

DPM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told politicians not to mix politics with business and personal interests . He should have carbon-copied his speech to the many state leaders embroiled in controversial projects that are allegedly done under the veil of secrecy.

In Perak, it is scandalous that a masterplan that has been painstakingly done by the diligent planners and gazetted as law can be undone by their political masters until they had to be stopped in their tracks by a court order.

When the rule of law has a pecking order determined by politicians, then as the troubled would say, “Houston, we have a problem” and democracy dies at the hands of the political warlords who enjoy "absolute immunity" and control the proceedings.

If destruction of rainforests and mangrove swamps is in the public interest, against a state's gazetted masterplan, God help us all. Where are the "sons of the soil" when the earth is destroyed and the rivers and seas turned red? Where are they when the earth cries for their help? Why are the "sons of the soil" destroying the rainforests and killing the old giant trees?

Will tourists be flocking to see Malaysia's "red sea" and "red river" soon? The few photographs of the "red peril" that has covered all in its path are enough to turn even the sceptics red with anger at the wanton destruction of the environment, not to mention damage to human health and all living things.

If those entrusted with safeguarding nature and the environment are the biggest culprits, how does anyone expect the rule of law to be enforced? What's the point of charging minor officials who are probably following orders? The investigators should be scaling the pecking order to the highest source of the malaise.

It is always the fall guys, the scapegoats, the minor officials, those in the lower pecking order who end up taking the rap for the "crime against nature" but the "mastermind" - the "El Chapo" of the illegal operations - remains untouched. Indeed, they are immune from prosecution and until people see the "big fish" caught and jailed, they will remain sceptical and cynical, and wisely so.

Zainuddin is right and those who proffer false hope are better off staying tacit. Their comments often add insult to injury and annoy most intelligent people. The consensus in public opinion has been formed over the years based on the visible and indisputable track record that certain people in this country enjoy unconstitutional privileges that even the Agong does not enjoy.

The sorry state of affairs has undermined the rule of law and emboldened certain people to become fearless and lawless. They mob shopping malls and other places and create public disorder but seldom get charged and convicted and thrown in jail.

Who will doubt the existence of double standard when the reality stares them in the face - when someone like former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is hounded until housed involuntarily in jail while Abdul Baginda Razak, acquitted of a far more serious crime, is left off the hook without an appeal and can live it up in swanky London.

How motorcyclists and motorists break the highway code and sneer at the red traffic lights and vigilante mobs take the law into their own hands are symptomatic of the callousness that filters down from the top.

Without the absolute rule of law, there is lawlessness and those who are running around scot-free ought to be in jail like former Selangor menteri besar Mohamad Khir Toyo who was unable to play the 'get out of jail' card . By then his immunity was not absolute and had expired. And the rule of law gets the chance.

Otherwise with political largesse, the rule of politics is supreme and above the rule of law, it seems. It is not what you know but who you know that counts in a place where it has become exceedingly difficult to see righteousness exalted but only wickedness thrives.

Influence peddling

In stark contrast where the rule of law, moral conscience and the will of the people are supreme, we see the popular sister of the King of Spain being hauled into court for corrupt business dealings and tax fraud charges.

Stripped of her royal title if convicted of the 89 charges, Princess Cristina - once dubbed the "Princess Diana of Spain" - and her 17 co-defendants, including her husband, face the prospect of jail sentences. What is interesting and eye-opening in the case is that Jaume Matas, the former president of the Balearic Islands, one of the accused, faces charges of perverting the course of justice, fraud, embezzlement and "trafficking in influences".

"Influence peddling", another description of "trafficking in influences", is at the heart of cronyism. Isn't it time for Malaysia to have a law against those who use their influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favours of preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment?

Isn't it time to ban cronyism and make it illegal?

This appears the solution to cronyism and corruption and countries like Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina and even poverty-stricken Romania have laws against influence peddling.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) uses the term "undue influence peddling" on the illegal acts of lobbying though influence peddling is not necessarily illegal.

And that is why a clear-cut law is needed to make it illegal because often it is the modus operandi of corruption. If it can happen in developed countries where the rule of law is more stringent, how much more in modern "feudalistic" societies?

And how more "feudalistic" can one get in a country that functions through a network of political cartels and those charged with upholding the law and delivering justice and given the authority and powers of state often abuse them?

Mayors, presidents, politicians of influence and others have had to face investigations and the courts for using their influence and perverting the course of proper governance and political propriety.

As of July 1, 2014 France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy is being investigated for alleged influence peddling. And the list of those charged is like a "who's who" in the political "A" list.

But the day "peddling influence" or "cronyism" becomes a crime in this country, humans would have started living on Mars. Meanwhile, those who call for politicians not to mix politics with business and personal interests are still living on the moon.

They need to be more down to earth and do the decent thing of nabbing the culprits, not the scapegoats, and charging them in court whoever they are. The simple act of law enforcement, not selective prosecution, will do.

Stop the immunity and you will stop the corruption.

STEVE OH is the author of the novel ‘Tiger King of the Golden Jungle’ and composer of the musical of the same title. He believes in good governance and morally upright leaders.