WILL THE NEWLY TINTED ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICY WORK?

by: Brigadier General (R) Dato Muhammad Arshad

I am back, and must thank all that have taken time to make comments at my last posting. It seems that I am not the only person to voice my reservation at PERKASA, and from the comments that I get, it is clear that a majority views PERKASA as nothing more than a political gimmick and a ‘hollow tin can’. Even BN Parliamentarian Nazri Aziz has declared PERKASA an opportunist; the only member of the ruling government to have opposed PERKASA, with the unusual silence from his own ruling party. Or was Nazri Aziz merely insinuating at Tun Dr. Mahathir for his presence at the AGM? And we know well that Nazri Aziz does not hide his ‘dislike’ for Tun, and is so often at loggerhead at what Tun does or say. Even the fire-brand Khairy seemed to have turned mute.

I also noticed that there were comments that viewed me as being anti-establishment. I am not at all surprised nor am I offended by such views, because I am an advocate of the freedom of speech and expression. And surely, the views that I have expressed in my postings cannot be totally wrong, nor do I claim that all that I have written is absolutely correct. It is up to the readers then to judge and to voice out their agreement or disagreement; however distasteful it is to me. It is for this very reason too that I do not wish to edit nor discard comments from my viewers. I view comments as an expression of one’s inner thoughts, and it is also through their writing that allows me to have a fair idea as to the character of a person.

I must say here that I do get regular calls from people and some do come forward to me to express their likes and dislike, or to put right some of the things that I have written. I do not have the cause or the reason to dislike them, nor do I want to get into an argument with them. I would merely say to them that they have every right to disagree, and I too have every right to say and write what I deem to be true. There is always one thing that I demand in a person i.e. that respect has to be mutual.

Now, on the question of corruption, the government seems to have conceded to the demands of the rakyat. PM Najib has recently announced a new policy that is supposed to enhance transparency and curb corruption in the award of contracts and tenders. I hope this policy is not merely a show by the government that they are serious in combating corruption. What this policy means is actually an acknowledgment by the government that corruption in this country is so rampant and blatant, and that something has to be done quickly before the country falls in line with some of the most corrupt countries of the world.

One needs to ask who actually are the perpetrators of this evil acts? My answer would firstly be politicians, and secondly civil servants. This is the undeniable truth, and since they are the powers themselves, I now begin to suspect that this new ‘anti-corruption policy’ announced by PM Najib may not be the end solution to the eradication of corruption in this country. Policies will be meaningless, if the people who manage and implement the policies are not sorted out first. We need people with integrity, honestly and God fearing to act as the custodian of these policies; not rouges and rascals that we so often hear off. It was only a few weeks ago that a young political secretary to a senior minister was caught with millions in his possession. Earlier, we had a civil servant who was a Director General with a substantial amount of unexplained cash kept in his house. These are examples of what I meant by rouges and rascals, and certainly such examples are not exhaustive.

I am told too that some top civil servants, especially those with the powers to approve huge tenders and contracts, have now got wiser in trying to escape noticed for corruption. They would approve tenders and contracts to their favoured companies; only to be offered a position as Chairman or Director of the company upon their retirement; of course with some monetary benefits accompanying the offer. And as Chairman and Director of the favoured company, they would then continue to play an influencing and exerting role to secure new tenders and contracts from the office where they had previously served. This is not uncommon, and one only needs to search the internet or refer to the Registrar of Companies to gain excess to names of Chairman and Directors of companies.

While I wish to remain skeptical of the new ‘anti-corruption policies’ introduced by the government recently, I am hopeful that something positive will come about from this policy. I also wish and hope that the ‘custodian’ of this policy are those who are trustworthy, honest and are well imbued with self respect, integrity and above all………God fearing.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION