YOURSAY | ‘Why wait until 2050? Corruption could be greatly clipped within three years…’

We may have clean gov’t by 2050, says Umno man

Notsoshiningarmour: “I believe the government will continue fostering the country, and in the end we will have civil servants and private sector of high integrity, and by 2050 - believe it - we will have a leader who is truly of high integrity,” Federal Territories Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Rafii (photo) told a TN50 dialogue session in Titiwangsa on Sunday.

Here is an Umno man admitting that we have a corrupt government and that if you need to clean it up, it will take 33 years. That itself will tell you how corrupt this government is, and that is the reason why Umno needs to be purged and the entire BN be removed from government forever.

Odin Tajué: The lack of integrity in Malaysia’s leader must be so obvious that we see here even an Umno Baru man has found denial of the shortcoming impossible, and he has publicly confirmed it. So, that part is settled. The said leader has no integrity. That is not at all flattering for him.

Now to the next part - grooming of future leaders to be people of integrity. To put it simply, ‘integrity’ in this context really means ‘absence of the desire to steal’. The grooming will be a tough exercise. Corruption is entrenched in Malaysia. It began way back when, for example, the notorious ‘so how’? (apa macam?) question became a joke decades ago.

The auditor-general’s reports have been revealing many ‘stupid-and-so-not-prosecutable’ people also since decades ago. Gossips about the seeming wealth-found-overnight of the politicians in the government also began decades ago.

Bad habits are difficult to break. But if that is so, the fact that the rotan, figuratively speaking, has hardly ever been used has contributed to the perpetuating of the habit of stealing. To stop stealing, you cane the head of the thieving gang - and cane him so hard that his members will squirm and shiver in fear - and then you cane them. Also very hard.

But only the junior members of the gang have been caned. Even then, only a few of them. To kill a thieving snake, you cut off its head, not its tail. But all that has been done is not even cutting off its tail but only nicking at it.

You are aiming for 2050 to have a leader with integrity? At the rate things are going in Malaysia, it will make no difference whether you have a thief or a saint helming the government. Because even if he is a thief, there will be nothing left for him to steal.

Anonymous #44199885: Malaysians are being told that they must live with corruption, abuse of power, kleptocracy, theft of public funds, money laundering, dissipation of our assets and illicit fund flows and the sale of our land, our sovereign rights and all critical industries to foreigners in an attempt to plug the hole until 2050.

This is the vision of Umno Youth. I wonder which consultant assessed the amount money to be made and stolen from the country that Umno Youth can confidently say that there will be no corruption by 2050.

It is an amazing plan that we need 33 years to end corruption and find a leader with high integrity. Umno's promise for GE14 is clear, it will not change and all will be BAU (business as usual) for 30 more years.

While Indonesia is making great strides in combatting and ending corruption, Umno has a 30-year plan.

XED: Why should ordinary people be denied a life in a fair and just society now? Corruption results in the unfair allocation of resources. An example: the prices of houses go up when housing developers pay bribes to get approvals, licences and permits. The cost of the bribes get worked into the final prices of the houses.

As this country goes down the slope, one of the laws of physics will apply, the one regarding acceleration. No bouncing up at the bottom of the slope, only a sinking into a sea of muck.

There was a time when families in the Philippines took in maids from Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong is full of Filipino maids. At the present rate, by 2050, many Malaysians will go to Indonesia as labourers and domestic maids. And many more non-Malays will have taken their assets and skills to other countries, leaving behind a narrower tax (and exploitation) base.

The lazy rich will find there is less to take from the other races and will likely exploit even more from the poor amongst their kind. With the brain drain and the flight of non-Malay capital, there would be even more dumbing down of Malaysians.

It is a big mistake to think that the flight of non-Malay skills and capital will bring prosperity for the growing Malay population. Look at the long-crippled economies of countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Why are huge numbers of Muslims fleeing the abodes of Islam for the heathen countries of the West, risking their lives and sacrificing their belongings?

Vijay47: This statement seemingly of a new hope carries with it several possibilities of interpretation. Was Mohd Razlan talking seriously about what the future could bring, was he being sarcastic, or was he being realistic about the present state of affairs in the country?

Under other more credible circumstances, Malaysians would share his confidence in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), but as long as that large elephant in the room remains free to smugly fly the skies, we would never have full trust in MACC and efforts to eliminate corruption.

There would always be that lingering suspicion that everything is just an act to distract us. Why wait another 33 years? Corruption could be greatly clipped within three years if enforcement agencies were given a free hand to clean the premises, from attic to cellar.

Until then, people may believe that Mohd Razlan also comes from Indiana University.

RM2.6 Billion Turkey Haram: Wait for another 30 years to clean up the government? We do not have luxury of time. By then, the country would be bankrupt. Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew just took a few years to transform the Singapore government to a clean one.

Catch the Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) now, and the rest follow. Surely the government will be clean instantly.

Clever Voter: There is a recognition that the nation is infected with corruption disease, but a denial that BN is incapable of curing the addiction.

If the nation is to be corruption-free, or at least achieve a significant reduction, BN has to do two things. One option is step aside and allow others to govern. Or put back the governance structure filled with committed individuals who act on behalf of the nation rather than political parties or individuals.

Both are doable but deeply embedded patronage system that churns out rent-seekers and apple-polishers will prevent this from happening. Changing these bad habits will upset many as the food chain nourishing the patronage system runs deep. We have only option one left.

Headhunter: Malaysians have a choice, wait for another 33 years for the plundering to stop (there's no guarantee that it will) by voting for BN or decide at the 14th general election that enough is enough.

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