Senseless deaths

I feel extremely sorry for the families of the 4 youngsters that died in a car accident in Johore recently, when the MPV they were in crashed into a ravine.

I also feel extremely sorry for the 17 year old youngster who drove the car and who survived the accident. I do not blame him, seeing how much he regretted and the grief he has displayed. I am sorry for him because this youngster would have to bear the burden of regret for these deaths for the rest of his life.

Whether it was his fault or somebody else (it was reported that some car cut into his lane just before the accident), it is no longer important, but we Malaysians  should learn something from these senseless deaths.

These youngsters were all going to be the ‘brains ‘ of the nation, and the deaths are not a loss to their families, but the whole nation as well.

From these senseless deaths can we learn anything?

Firstly, does passing the driving test mean that a person is qualified to drive? It would seem so, since under the law, anyone with a driving license can drive. But with just a few driving lessons and most of the lessons done on urban or town roads, is it sufficient to equip us to drive on unfamiliar road conditions? Long distance driving is very different; so much more anticipation and so much more care are needed in long distance driving that a good town driver may not be a good distance drivier.

Secondly, those with kids who have passed driving tests will all know about our system. A youngster approaches a driving school, and the first thing the driving instructor asks is whether you want to “pao”. If you want to ‘pao’, you pay a certain sum, and you are guaranteed to pass, one way or another, especially on road driving.  Even if you are a very lousy driver, but as long as you “pao”, they will also”pao’ you, and you will be given the license to kill drive. we all know that this has something to do with corruption, and corrupt officials are actually helping to churn out thousands of killer drivers every year. So much for the ‘blood money’ on their hands.

So knowing how the system functions, I had purposedly gone on long distance trips after each of my kids passed driving exam, and asked my kid to drive me, and gave him/her as much tips on long distance driving as I could while sitting next to him/her.  Children may not like it, but i think it is the adults’ duty to make sure that they are really able to handle a car well before letting them drive alone unsupervised especially on long distance driving.

In this case, I dont know whether the driver has ‘pao’ or not. But knowing that he has just passed his driving test, and knowing how our system function, why was he allowed to handle a big car like a 7 seater MPV(or SUV)? Why was he allowed to go on long distance driving? And why was he allowed to fetch 6 persons in the car on a long distance trip? Cars with full loads are typically  more difficult to manoevre, and a big car like a MPV  would require more skill in manoevring around corners or braking.

The system has to take some responsilibilty for this sort of accidents. Practically everyone knows about the ‘pao’ buisness. Everyone knows that corruption is involved. I am sure even the kids of the leaders have gone through the ‘pao’ system too. So the question to ask is that why after so many years, noting was done to curb it. .

The same system has been allowed to produce drivers that are half past six, drivers that do not obey road signs or rules , drivers that drive up against traffic in one way street and so on. Why wasn’t  anything  done? Giving reminders and presents on balik kampong trips during festive seasons are just gimmicks for publicity; i do not think it has any effect on curbing accidents and dangerous driving.

It is proper instruction and strict testing conditions that will help to produce better drivers. It is education and guidance that will produce more tolerant individuals who would be more patient and better drivers. Why nothing was done?

If nothing is done to overhaul the system, I am afraid that this will not be the last time we  see and read about these unnecesssary deaths.

What transformation?

When a school boy comes back with  persistent poor grades, what any parent must do is to find out what is wrong; whether the boy understands his lessons, whether he puts in enough time to study and learn the things taught, and whether there is anything wrong in his way of studying if enough time has been put in and still he gets persistent poor grade. Once a fault is detected, there must be will power to correct it, and then the grade will slowly but surely improve.

Only a very indulgent and bad parent would blame the marking system or the school instead of his own boy, if over the years, markings by different teachers come to the same results.

This is what is happening here (Read this report: Pemandu blames new measurement method for poorer score). We are further and further down in the Corruption Perception Index. We have put in GTP, ETP and what have you, but all these transformations do not seem to work; rather, corruption has perceived to become worse, whether it is according to this international index, or just by asking any Ah Pek in the street.

One glaring issue is that very few big fish are caught and charged. When the top gets away, those-near -to-the-top,  those-further-below-the-top, and those who are way-below-the-top would all try to get corrupted. Afterall, who does not want easy fast money?

When people can get away from taking a big government loan to do a certain project, but instead use part of the money for something else, it will send a signal that all it matters in this country is connection and  position. Others having similar position or connection would want to emulate.

The authority may say there is  nothing wrong, but ask the people in the street, they have already formed  their opinion based on common morality pratice . They  will probably shake their heads and sigh, as a sign of helplessness to tackle this type of abuse.

You can have the best brains and the best plans to transform, but they will not work as long as this culture remains. When the top beam is crooked, how to expect the lower beams to be straight, even if they want to? Transformation would not work unless it is from the very top to the very bottom…..

………………………………………

Just imagine that a company with many shareholders  gives you a loan to start a chicken farm, and instead you use the money to buy cars and house, and when the auditor of the company points this out to the company shareholders, and the shareholders wanted to know why, you scream in a public forum as if you are the one who is the aggrieved party, and you blame the company, the auditor and the shareholders for doing this to you, why is the logic, where is the moral, where is common courtesy?

Kill the monkey to warn other monkeys and chickens

MACC has brought a corruption charge against an exMB. This MB stays in a house which is as big as a palace and is rumoured to be worth tens of millions.

I do not wish to go into the case since this is subjudice as the case will be tried in open court.

This is the second big one after a Tun was charged.

But what is important is not just to bring them to court. What is important is that MACC must be able to get  conviction in both these cases, and in cases that are to come.

It is important to nail big fishes so that the ikan billis can be warned. There is a Chinese saying that in order to warn the monkey we must kill the chicken. But the reverse is also true. We must kill the monkey in order to warn the chickens as well as other monkeys..

For the sake of future generations, I really hope that this case can bring a conviction and the palace-like house be confiscated if convicted.

Conviction is important because MACC’s credibility is at stake. If none of these cases can result in conviction, and all these big fishes are released back into the ocean, then a strong message will be sent to the chickens as well as the monkeys that it would be OK to be corrupted.

Let us just wait and see!!

Where are all the cats?

Corruption is the mother of all evils. It is like cancer, once taken roots, it is very difficult to get rid off. It will only get worse unless something drastic is being done.

One of the best indicators of the level of corruption in civil service  is the Annual Auditor General’s report. I wrote an article in October last year, “That time of the year again” and the points are still as valid today. You can read that article here.

I will also paraphrase the first few paragraphs here:

It is that time of the year again.

No, I am not  referring to the ‘durian’ season, nor  to the festivities like Deepavali, Hari Raya or Mid Autumn Festival.

I am referring to the time when lay men like you and me feel angry and frustrated towards certain ‘wrongs”, but are powerless to do anything.

Every year, since time immemorial, it has evoked the same feeling;  but every year, we just sigh , comment with our ‘coffee kakis’ in ‘Kopitiams’ and shake our heads . People like me with a computer will probably write something to let off steam;  the more important people, like those elected YBs from the other side of the divide, will probably pose some embarrassing questions in the Dewan.

The end results will be the same; life carries on and nothing changes. We will all forget about and talk on other issues until the time of the year is here again.

I refer to the week in the year when the Annual Auditor General’s report is released.

This year, one of the most shocking things revealed is that school children are given substandard food to eat, as reported in malaysiakini article :“Sandwich kosong” for school kids, sardince missing”. I will post part of that article here too:

This is what the Auditor-General found being supplied under the Additional Food Programme (RMT) designed for schoolchildren by the government.

In its report for the year of 2009, the Auditor-General found that SK Jeroco in Lahad Datu, which was supposed to provide the pupils sardine sandwiches with slices of cucumber, tomato and lettuce, gave them only margarine sandwiches.

Apart from the SK Jeroco, food suppliers in five different primary schools around Malaysia, who were checked out, were caught supplying food way below the quality of the recommended menu for the RMT programme.

“After the feedback from the dietician in the Health Ministry’s nutrition department, we found that food from the menu provided can cause the schoolchildren to suffer from malnutrition,” the Auditor-General’s Report noted.

Six other outsourced school food suppliers have also been caught providing food completely different from the recommended menu in the RMT programme, often food that was of lower value.

To cheat on kids is the most heinous crime . I do not know how these people can do such things; don’t they have any conscience at all?

It is either the suppliers have to give a big kickback to the officials awarding the contracts for supplying food to schools, or the suppliers themselves trying to give sub quality food and  pocketing the money. I think in the context of our country, the probability is high that the kickback is big, and the suppliers have no choice but to reduce the quality in oder to still make money, like our Car Project.

This has already become a culture. Officials sitting in big government offices think only of how to start projects , not for the well beings of the people, but more for utilising government funds and get kickback when awarding contracts for such projects. The projects are  not for the people anymore. IT is for their own pockets.

With corruption at such levels, even to the extent of supplying “sandwich kosong” and “bihun kosong’ to children, what is the authority doing? Will it be like previous years, after the hoohaa, everything will be back to normal again?  The rats that used to eat in dark places and hidden corners now are eating blatantly right on top of the table.. They eat all the sardines and leave behind the roti kosong.. Where are all the cats?

The first salvo from N to M

I find that this article from the Malaysia Chronicle a very good read. It is informative and analytical…click here. i will quote part of the article here.

Many Umno watchers believe that the only way for Najib to restore public confidence in his administration and more importantly reclaim his mandate to lead the nation, via his 1Malaysia plan, is to neutralize Mahathir and the ultra-Malay groups that Mahathir patronizes such as Perkasa and MPM.

“I think it no secret at all the Chinese in the PKFZ scandal are the small fry. Even Ling, with all due respect, he was just an order taker. But how does one go after a man the stature of Mahathir without causing an irreversible split in Umno. If Umno is shaken, the rest of nation will also be shaken. This is a fact and the non-Malays must be sensitive and patient,” the Umno watcher said.

“It is very hard to fight off accusations you are betraying your own race, especially hot-head groups like Perkasa and MPM – they politicize and racialise everything you say. Can Najib remain president of Umno if he is seen to be anti-Malay? Does it make sense? To nit-pick and argue at this point in time is wasteful.”

The big picture

According to the Umno source, if Najib were to openly challenge Mahathir and Perkasa, too much effort would be spent on unnecessary racial and political bickering and the economy would plunge to zero.

The better way out was to get the big picture right and then gradually fill in the new power equation. And getting the big picture right meant the first order of the day for Najib must be to reclaim his power. And finally get his 1Malaysia off the ground.

Right now, Najib is unable to move because of Mahathir, who after 22 years of ruling with a fist of iron, does not like the system of governance he set up to be changed. Also, his legacy of vested interests and his bevy of cronies needs to be protected, hence the enormous resistance to let go and let Najib rule as he sees fit.

“This is what the PKFZ is about – to show Mahathir who’s the boss at Umno and to tell Malaysians that he will keep his promises to reform and unify the races. But first of all, he has got to solve this huge problem called Dr M and his legacy from the past,” the watcher said.

Indeed, this opinion piece corresponds to what i said in my post “bring in the other Big Fish too!” a few days ago, after a meeting with N. He did mention that he was facing stiff  resistance over his reform, and he has to move cautiously to bring change.  Indeed i have warned of this in my other article: The ascendancy of the right wing politics.

That is what leadership is about!

This is from the MalaysianInsider today:

MCA today asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to give examples of countries which asked their Cabinet members to declare their assets to the public.

Its president, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, said to his knowledge, no country practised such a policy.

“Even in the United States, they only declare their assets to the president. They don’t go around announcing their assets here and there,” he told reporters after opening Perak MCA’s annual convention here today.

Dr Chua said this when asked to comment on remarks made by MACC chief Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohammed that he wished to see the public declaration of assets by Cabinet and judiciary members in Malaysia.

Abu Kassim yesterday was reported to have said that he agreed with a suggestion by former Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan which called for Cabinet members to declare their assets to the public in the interest of transparency.

Presently, Cabinet members declare the assets annually to the prime minister.

I support Abu Kassim in this. Since the cabinet is made up of people voted in by the people and is supposed to act as  proxies for the people , there is such a thing called accountability. They are the representatives of the people and by virtual of being paid by the public,  they are public servants. And the public has the right to know about whether they have amassed unusual amount of wealth while in office. If that is so, something must be wrong somewhere and MACC must be given power to investigate.

It is very simple. For a Minister to stay in a house worth tens of millions, like what a former MB’s house was estimated to be, there must be something wrong, since even if they saved every single cent while in office, it is just not possible.

If  they can be clean, I , as a tax payer and their ultimate boss,  do not actually mind to pay them higher salary, like the little red dot is doing down south. I am sure most of you do not mind paying them higher salary so that they can live comfortably as a public servants if only they can be clean and there is no corruptions.

Just because other countries are not doing it does not mean that Malaysia should  not do it, if it is good. We should not follow people blindly.

Just like the chipped passport, which I believe Malaysia is  one of the first to adopt, why cant we be the first to  do something which is good and which is not done elsewhere in the world?

That is what leadership is about!

Bring in other Big Fish too!

A Tun was charged in court. This is the highest ranked person so far to be charged in the history of the country.  Although in law, a person is innocent until proven otherwise, i view this as a good start for bringing big fish to book.

Hope more prosecutions can be done, and more Big Fish can be brought to court, other than this fish head..  And for successful prosecution,  MACC must be given independent status with power to prosecute, something i have been harping since the beginning of this blog in 2006.

Under the law, all men are equal. All crimes must be punished.   All those public figures who have wealth and  assets  beyond their earnings  must be investigated and if no proper reasons can be given as to how they have amassed such wealth, investigate them thoroughly and charge them!

I was in the group that met the Top in  a dialogue . It was a  closed door meeting, and since the Top came late , only a few of us got the chance to speak, and those who spoke, spoke on some of the issues that I have highlighted in the article “tips of the iceburg’.  I was one of those who spoke and i think i was the most blunt and frank, as is my usual  style. We spoke on the need to be prudent in spendings, cut the wastages,   and the need to really tackle corruption, and that MACC was  perceived to be a tool of the government…  To his credit, the Top was taking note. I cannot reveal what exactly transpired   since it was a closed door meeting, and who spoke what.

The Top is facing resistance from right wingers, as divulged by one of the Penang leaders to a Chinese press after the dialogue.  He was quoted this in Nanyang 28/7/10 edition page A8, and this is  the translation of his news (for the sake of those who do not read Mandarin) : “Perdana Menteri terasa dalam mengerakkan ideal tadbir urus negara kerana menghadapi halangan daripada sayap kanan Melayu”. I resorted to quoting this news by this person  because none of us was  supposed to say anything about what the Top had said, but since this person  has already told  this  to the press,  quoting him was an indirect way of telling my readers  out there that the Top mentioned that he is facing great resistance in his trying to move his 1M concept, be fair to everyone (like in awarding scholarships to all 9A+ (regardless of skin colour) and government reform. Of course no one knows whether he says it from his heart, but his body language told me that he was quite sincere when he mentioned that.

I have also heard from other sources that his position within his party is not as strong as before because of the right wingers including the Old Horse and his outsourced organisation Perkasa..

The fear is if he cannot deliver, he would be pushed out and the Right winger’s Head would be the next Top.. A friend from Singapore expressed the same fear in Singapore of this happening to me too recently over tea.

As a small person and an ordinary folk, I think I have answered to my conscience in speaking without fear and favour  all this while, and I have even spoken  face to face with the very Top and bluntly too.

I have played my parts and have done my best as a small man in the street, and being an ordinary person , I will probably gradually fade away from all these. I have had enough. Being attacked by both sides is demoralising.  I was also glad that while waiting for the Top to arrive, the advisor (whom I have criticised very strongly in many National Meets) commended me as ” conscience of the party”, perhaps an  indirect recognition of my being very vocal  in meetings and being without fear or favour, bringing out things that i have written in this blog, and steppng on toes of top leaders and by doing so, many of these people  view me as  even more “opposition-minded’ than many opposition members.

It is one way to show that being a member of a political party does not mean that you have to sell your soul to them. On the other hand, you can be a thorn and keep on reminding them on ideology, and being a person with no ambition and a person who has done no wrongs and no leash around the neck for them to control, they cannot do anything to you. Even though my clinic was audited ( an euphemism for ‘raid’), nothing substantial could be used against me,  and if I am really pro-government, would I suffer such a fate?

Change can come from outside and change can come from applying pressure from within. All roads lead to Rome. Though Rome , in the Malaysian sense,  is still far far away, charging this TUN is the right first step.

I have always said that, even to my own members, that it would be good for the country for  the ruling party to lose once and change for the better and then come back cleaner and stronger, like he case in Taiwan.. I have not changed this view, but in the meantime, we still need change, no matter how subtle, for the people to live better. And you still need people to speak up either within the system or as a creditable third force, even though these people will be attacked by both sides, since to one side he is with the other, and to the other side, he is viewed as more opposition than opposition. That is the role no one cherishes; only those without ambition and without hoping to get anything except harrassment or even ISA can play, since only then, you can speak without fear or favour.

Charging this Tun is certainly a surprise to many, and i supposed many other Tan Sris and Datuks are now shivering, and did not know when the next big fish will be charged.

A local index to measure integrity and corruption

I had a chance to attend a discussion organised by the Institute of Integrity Malaysia, located off Jalan Persiaran Duta last month.

The session was attended by civil servants from some governments, NGOs and a few politicians like Tan S G (vp of DAP) .

This  was a nonpolitical discussion on how to improve the integrity of local councils in Malaysia.

I gave a proposal that perhaps it would be good to formulate an Index along the line of the Corruption Perception Index of Transparent International. We can call this CPI of local councils, or to make it more palatable, perhaps we can call it Performance Index of local councils , and it would be used to measure corruption, integrity and efficiency of our local councils.

I suggested that this index can be used to compare the efficiency and corruption levels of the various local council. Like the TI’s CPI, it should be made known and published in newspapers on a regular basis (once a year maybe), and let everyone in Malaysia knows about how their local council is performing, how corrupted or not corrupted are their councillors, and by having these indices, it would serve as a wakeup call for those councils that were ranked very low.  Comparison and competition will introduce motivation (to do better than others) as well as a shame factor (for those deemed very corrupted councils) , and hopefully, it would serve as an incentive for each and every council to try to compete and outdo the others.

There must be integrity at 3 levels. Macro level and that is at policies level; meso level, and that is at insitutions,  departments and councils levels,; and thirdly the micro level and that is the level of individuals – the politicians, civil servants and so on.

Only when there is integrity will there be morality, and both integrity and morality are precious commodities that are so lacking in our leaders, civil service and even many of the business people .

Treat the underlying disease !

The missing engine is again a symptom of a very serious underlying disease.

Where else in the world, except maybe in movie plots, can you see a jet engine being stolen and transported out of the country? I was told even the log and maintenance book have gone missing together with the engine.

It is not something that you can hide in your pocket. It was taken from a military airport, where the perimeter is fenced and where there is supposed to be guardhouse and patrols and watch towers.

If this thing can happen to our defence force, how are they going to defend us? why the need for the defence force then? Why the need for air fighters, submarines and so on.

Who in the world would want to sell us their sophisticated military technology when such technology can be easily stolen and sell to rogue businessmen?

There is really no point to set up another Royal commission, as suggested by the opposition . This is just a symptom and even if the perpetrators can be hauled up and punished, it would not change the culture.

What we need to do is to treat the whole disease.  That means to change the whole culture of greed and corruption. The whole culture of double standard being practiced. The whole culture of selective law enforcement.

The cancer has spread so widely that it may not even be possible to resuscitate the patient. It has infiltrated to our civil service, our education system, our sports arena, our enforcement agencies, and the armed forces.

The only way perhaps is to bring back meritocratic practices and ensure the independence of institutions and enforcement agencies.

Any thing less will result in more brain drain and flight of money from the country.

We may go down to the level of the Philippines sooner than we thought.

The cancer of the nation

Came back from a 9 day trip on Saturday, but have been trying to rest because of the jet lag..

This is one trip that I completely shut off from emails, internet.. Those of us who blog  actually spend too much time online and may have neglected other aspects of life. Too much of good medicine can kill.. Too much of good things like going online can also be bad..

Well, need some time to get tuned to the happenings past 10 days.

But one of the most shocking is the resignation of the MACC boss.

We do not know what happened , but it is unlikely to be due to the reason that he wanted to rest and with the family, since his tenure has only 5 more months to go.

He was the first commissioner of MACC and he could have earned himself a place in Malaysian history if he put his heart and soul into tackling corruption, like the ICAC of HOng Kong inthe 70s.

Not only corruption has become worse and Malaysia’s ranking in corruption perception has gone down lower and lower, but certain cases like the case of TBH has cast a dark shadow on the whole MACC.

Corruption is the mother of all evils. It is to a country what a cancer is to a person. When a person is having cancer ( I refer to cancer of earlier stages, not the end stage type where metastasis is everywhere and the fate of the patient is doomed), he can have several options:

1.  remove the cancer surgically or by radiotherapy or chemotherapy of a combination of these

2.  ignore the symptoms and wait for it to get worse, and the end result s of course death.

3.  choose to have partial treatment , in which case, he is only buying time and when the cancer flares up again after some time, he will be like that of No. 2

To go for radical treatment is painful but that is the only way to have a fighting chance to get cure. To choose option 2 or 3 is to deny oneself of a chance to get cure.

The country is having cancer of corruption. The perception is that there is selective investigation and prosecution of corruption cases, and those with big cables are left untouched.

I think the blame is not on MACC or its officers alone. The blame should be on the political masters , for they are the one who hold the keys to whether they really want MACC to be independent. Unless and until MACC is given true independence to investigate and prosecute, tackling of corruption is like scenerio No. 3, and there would not be any cure for this mother of all evils.

The end result is predictable: the country is going down the drain… It is already a couple of steps down, and if there is no political wills to allow MACC to investigate with full independence , things will only get worse.

The ball is at the feet of the political master.. How he plays it will determine how this country is going to fare. Whether we will end up as a maid exporting country ( I have been talking about it some time back), or whether we can buck the present trend and achieve our dream of a developed country status, it is up to the top political master, the PM.

Malaysia , Namibia and Samoa

I asked a friend whether he has heard of Namibia. He answered:  an African nation in the southern part of Africa. I asked him what he knows about Namibia, and he answered that he did not know much except that might be a country that is backward, corrupt and with a not so good standard of living.

His answers represent the perception of  a lot of Malaysia about African nations in general.

Most of us would not want to visit that country as a tourist destination.

BUt that is the problems with we Malaysians. We thought we are the centre of the world and we thought that Malaysia is the best place in the world.

Let me tell you this. Malaysia and Namibia actually share the same spot in the corruption perception table 2009. Both countries are ranked 56, together with countries like Samoa and Latvia..These few countries share the same points, obtaining 4.5 out of 10 . It is equivalent to a person sitting for exam and obtaining only 45%, a mark which during our time is considered failure (60 is the passing mark).  Last year, we were placed 47 with a score of 5.1.

The top 5 countries d their scores are:

1. New Zealand   9.4

2. Denmark           9.3

3.  Singapore        9.2

      Sweden             9.2

5. Switzerland      9.0

Hong Kong is ranked NO. 12, and Taiwan is NO. 37. These 2 places were once among the  the most corrupted in the world, but has since moved on to the top ranks  of the least corrupted nations.

SO the myth that Asians are corrupted does not hold water. If Singapore, which has similar culture as Malaysia, can be one of the least corrupted countries, then we must ask ours selves, what went wrong ?

I have written many posts on the evils of corruptions, and lest I be labelled as ‘harping on issues’, i will not repeat all those again.

I think it is suffice for me to  mention that corruption is the mother of all evils, and no nation which is deemed corrupt can rise to the rank of developed countries. Selective prosecution of those deemed corrupted will not change the corrupt culture and as long as the corrupt culture is in place, Malaysia can say bye bye to our dream of becoming a first world country.

For the full table, please click here.

P.S. I was just thinking, at the rate we are sliding down the corruption slide, 9 positions in a year, very soon we will reach the bottom (last position is 180), something our football team has the ‘foresight’ of achieving long time back.

That time of the year again

It is that time of the year again.

No, I am not  referring to the ‘durian’ season, nor  to the festivities like Deepavali, Hari Raya or Mid Autumn Festival.

I am referring to the time when lay men like you and me feel angry and frustrated towards certain ‘wrongs”, but are powerless to do anything.

Every year, since time immemorial, it has evoked the same feeling;  but every year, we just sigh , comment with our ‘coffee kakis’ in ‘Kopitiams’ and shake our heads . People like me with a computer will probably write something to let off steam;  the more important people, like those elected YBs from the other side of the divide, will probably pose some embarrassing questions in the Dewan. 

The end results will be the same; life carries on and nothing changes. We will all forget about and talk on other issues until the time of the year is here again.

I refer to the week in the year when the Annual Auditor General’s report is released.

Many years back, the AG reports revealed that  – those in the 20s and 30s might not remember-  certain items of cutlery were bought for millions of ringgit, the purchasing power of which will be equivalent to the cost of a small new Honda jet now( I googled and found that Honda jets cost US$3.65 millions each a year ago ).

Well, not to be outdone, we have officers in different departments competing with each other to get listed in the AG report every year, as if it is a honour list not to be outdone by others.

This year the honour must go to a college in  Balik Pulau  Penang, which bought 2 laptops for RM $42,320 per piece, according to the Star online here. I do not know what advanced features this lap top has, but I only know that for that amount of money, I can buy more than a dozens of the computer which I am using now to write this.

Then again, if they bought a 19 inch monitor for Rm8,500 per unit, what do you expect? I can buy one for about a thousand ringgit. Not to mention the 450 units of computer CADs which cost RM3.45 million, an amount an average Malaysian can never hope to earn in a lifetime.

What can we all do? I will write and let off steam and this  is now fast becoming a ritual at this time of the year.  Many of my friends who do not like to write will probably go to Kopitiams again, commenting on these  purchases, sighing and cursing, and soon forgetting about the whole thing again.

Do not blame these officers for buying above market prices. When they see the leaders paying tens of millions of commission to middle men in procurements, it is only human to follow suit.

When the top beams are crooked, the lower beams cannot be straight.

 

This post is also published under my column in Malaysian Insider here.

A most commendable act

Transparent International Malaysia chapter Chief Datuk Paul Low has resigned over the release of the TI report, which he took upon himself o release without discussing with the whole committee.

His action is commendable.

initially when he was elected to be the head of the exco committee of TI Malaysia, and news reports had it that he was a MCA member, I was quite worried because  there might be a conflict of interest. He has since resigned as MCA life member.

After the release of the TI report on corruption perception index , it was reported that many exco members of TI-M was not happy because the report was never tabled for discussion.

We would never know if there would be any objections for it to be released  had the report been  discussed in the exco, since this has become academic.

But as a corruption watchdog, I would think that there was really nothing to hide and since in the past, perception indices were released year after year and the yearly index is widely available in the net, I do not think that there would be any objections from any members over the release of the report.

So it is really a technical matter to table and discuss it in the exco. But this technical matter is important, as firstly it is the tradition to do so, and secondly, by discussing it, the exco assumes collective responsibility and exco members exercise their rights entrusted to them by the members.

So even though this might be technical, it is indeed very important to table the report in the exco and seek views from members, and any organisation that prides itself on collective leadership would do so.

So by failing to do so, Paul Low has made a  mistake, and it is therefore honourable for him to resign over this mistake.

It would serve the nation well if leaders in politics and other NGOs can follow this practice of taking responsibility and resign over their mistakes.

Instead, we have leaders who have committed not only mistakes  but ‘crimes’ , suspended and still trying  to make a political comeback.

Compared to these leaders, Paul Low stands tall, and whatever technical mistakes that he has done, has been nullified by his noble action of taking accountability and stepping down

TI-M is an important watch dog, and since it is back by TI networks all over the world, it is a powerful body. The report that comes out of TI serves as guideline to a lot of organisations and corporations when they consider where to put their money to invest.

The corruption perception index compiled by TI is ‘the’ index that most businessmen and researchers follow in their work.

Malaysia’s TI corruption perception rankings has become worse and worse, as in most other rankings that I have pointed out in this blog.

Without transparency and accountability, this TI ranking is going to go down further.

Read this also:  Winning the penny and losing the pound

Mirror mirror on the wall, where will Malaysia be heading to?

2 days ago, I posted the  global competitiveness rankings done by World Economic Forum. Malaysia was ranked ’24’, down from ’21’ a year ago, and ’17’ 2 years back.

Today I am going to post the rankings of the ‘Ease of doing busniess’ 2010. This is compiled by World bank yearly to reflect the ease of doing business including starting business in a country. The higher the ranking, the more pro-business is the regulatory process in the country…

You dont have to be economic genius to know that Malaysia’s ranking in this is slipping downwards too. Last year, we were ranked NO 21, and this year 23.

 I am posting the top 30 rankings here. For the full list, you can go here and for the comparison between 2009 and 2010, you can view here.

 

Economy	Ease of Doing Business Rank	Starting a Business
Singapore	1	4
New Zealand	2	1
Hong Kong, China	3	18
United States	4	8
United Kingdom	5	16
Denmark	6	28
Ireland	7	9
Canada	8	2
Australia	9	3
Norway	10	35
Georgia	11	5
Thailand	12	55
Saudi Arabia	13	13
Iceland	14	33
Japan	15	91
Finland	16	30
Mauritius	17	10
Sweden	18	43
Korea, Rep.	19	53
Bahrain	20	63
Switzerland	21	71
Belgium	22	31
Malaysia	23	88
Estonia	24	37
Germany	25	84
Lithuania	26	99
Latvia	27	51
Austria	28	122
Israel	29	34

 

Remember a fewyears ago, I wrote an article will Malaysia be marginalised, in which I quoted the FDI rakings of Malaysia:

(data from UNCTAD)

FDI flow to Malaysia slipped from NO 4 in 1990 to NO 62 in 2005.

Apart from economic rankings, look at football. The FiFa latest rankings (2nd September) showed that Malaysia is now ranked 152…view here. We are in page 4 out of 5 pages of rankings, and very soon, we may be in page 5.

What pathetic performance is that, you may ask… Indeed it is pathetic.. It is almost hopeless..

Our economy was 4 times that of SOuth Korea in the 60s, and was almost on par in the early 80s, but now SOuth Korea’s economy is now 4 times ours.

While MU medical school was considered par with University of Singapore when I was a medical student in the latter in the 70s, MU was no longer listed in the top 100 while University of Singapore (now known as National Unisversity of SIngapore is ranked NO. 30. View here

The trend is clear that in EVERY ASPECT, we are losing our standings, and the decline starts in the eighties, when we started shouting “Malaysia Boleh”. 

Those of us who went through life in the 60s and 70s when Malaysia was really ‘Boleh”, would recall nostaligically that Malaysia regularly beat South Korea at Merdeka Tournament in Soccer.. Malaysian students were often the top students in overseas prestige universities and colleges. Look what we have to day, even scholarship holders and top SPM 16As students were repeating.(view here)

While politicians in the past travel by buses and trains to KL to attend the annual meetings of their parties, often putting up 3  to a room in a budget hotel, nowadays, they travel by limousines or planes (first class) to come here, and stay in 5 star hotels…

It can be seen that there is in fact an inverse proportional relations between politicians’ bolehness and the country’s:  while politicians become “boleh’ and ‘rich’ beyond imaginations, the country has beocme more and more ‘ tak boleh”, slipping down in everything.

Corruption is of course the number one culprit. When politicians become corrupted, they tend to use thier ill gained money to cover the mouths of and gain support from  thier supporters , cronies and subordinates, and this in turn lead to massive abuse of power, which subsequently lead to declining standard of governance, and compromising the judicairy.

COrruption also leads to an end to meritocracy. When there is corruption, the best company would not win a contract; the winner would be the one that is willing to use money to cover their incompetency..

Loss of meritocracy in turn leads to loss of excellence, and slowly but surely, the decline is seen in all fields, as reflected in the various rankings above.

We can try to arrest all these declines by tackling corruption, and nothing is better to show our resolve in this than going to the very bottom of the PKFZ issue.

I would therefore call upon the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate thoroughly into the PKFZ fiasco, rather than just setting up  a special task force. A RCI would show the people that the govenrment is serious in tackling corrupt practices, and would be able to go to the very bottom of the ills that is making our country  sick and uncompetitive.

Honour and shame

I was saddened by the death of the former South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, two days ago, when he jumped from a hill near his home after leaving a suicide note.

It is from this hill that Mr Roh jumped

This was reported in NYTimes:

For both his supporters and detractors, his suicide served as a painful reminder of how difficult it remained to break the chain of graft in South Korean society……………………

Roh killed himself a day before his wife, Kwon Yang-sook, was expected to be summoned for questioning for a second time.

“He was driven to kill himself for taking some money from a long-time supporter, while those who robbed big businesses of truckloads of cash are still alive without shame,” said Choi Chul-kyu, a 48-year-old mourner holding a candle, referring to former conservative political leaders convicted of bribery.

“How am I going to explain this to my children? How am I going to explain the fact that every president in this country has wanted to squash his predecessor?”

But those who were close to Roh said the charges were especially painful because he had made his name as a “clean” politician, refusing to follow in the path of his predecessors; every former South Korean president since the 1980s has faced corruption accusations or gone to prison on such charges after his term was over.

In recent weeks, Roh acknowledged that a little-known businessman who supported him had given more than US$6 million (RM20.94 million) to his wife and son and his brother’s son-in-law while he was in office, but he denied the payments were bribes. He said that he did not know about the transactions until he left office and that the money for his wife went to pay a debt.

 SOuth Korea has a tradition of graft , as in many Confucianist societies, since in these societies, bribes and ‘gifts’ are sometimes difficult to differentiate and many politicians have taken  advantage of this to be on the take. Many more are made of lesser moral stuff and become corrupted by the power given to them.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely – this is indeed very true.

The late Roh was acknowledged as one of the cleanest of SOuth Korean presidents. But after watching politics from the fringe, I am rather sceptical of the word ‘clean’. Too many ‘clean ‘ leaders have been seen to be on the take. And it really does not matter whether a person takes one dollar or one billion; to be on the take for small amount is as serious as those taking bigger sums.

Nevertheless, in this case,  I do not  know the circumstances of the US 6 millions allegedly given to him, and whether this was ‘contribution’ allowed under the law or ‘gifts’ that can easily be interpreted as corruption.. Since i do not know the background of the money, I would not want to comment on the allegation of corruption against him.

But one thing is for sure. He is the one who has the highest honour among all the past leaders of SOuth Korea who were investigated for corruption.

In death, he has set an example of someone who was unable to face his name being blemished by corruption charges.  To take one’s own life for one’s action or inaction speaks much of his personality , and I respect him for that. He had at least one of the basic value of a human; that of being able to feel shameful…

The recognition of “shame’ is also one of Confucianist culture. Such recognition of shame can be due to actual mistake one made , or even to a perceived mistake, even when the perceived mistake was not a mistake.

Remember those  Japanese committing HaraKiri to protect one’s honour and name, sometimes over just a matter of principle?

Roh’s death will not be in vain, whether he was guilty or not. It will have an impact.

Any future South Korean leader wishing to take any gifts or money would probably think twice . IT would serve as a powerful deterrent in a country already changing towards better transparency and accountability .

I am quite confident, that South Korea will follow the footsteps of Hong Kong and Singapore to become a very clean society, given the many examples of past presidents being investigated and jailed.

Looking back at our country, we cannot say the same about some of our leaders. Many of those who are openly corrupt are so proud of their act that not only they do not resign, they aspire to go higher.

Some who have been found guilty inside their own party of corrupt practices can still hold on to high positions, in government as well as party hierarchy.

Not only there is no honour, there is no more feeling of shame.

To these people, even corruption can be glorious.  With this type of culture, how are we going to achieve a clean, transparent and accountable society?

MACC – wait and see

 

I have been very vocal on the setting up of an Independent Commission to fight corruption, in my blog as well as in meetings. (just type ICAC in this blog ‘s search machine, and you will get more than 10 articles listed).

I have even drawn up a proposed organisation chart for an ICAC in one of my earlier post. ( As shown above).

Corruption is the evil of society; it not only adds cost to doing business, but more importantly, it corrupts the power that be , and once corruption becomes a culture, enforcement, governing  and award of projects will become selective, in favour of those who pay.  The whole system then revolves around money, and nothing works anymore without money.

So I welcome the setting up of the proposed Malaysian Anti Corruption Comission. Howewver imperfect it may be , the fact that even some BN legislators are not too happy about its wider power means that this could be a real improvement over the old ACA.

Malaysiakini quoted  Nazri’s claim that that the setting up of a bi-partisan Special Committee on Corruption, among other mechanisms, is a reflection of the government’s determination to battle graft. Even Anwar was quoted by Malaysiakini to give conditional support.

It could have been even better if this MACC can have its own prosecution power and a prosecution department, so that it becomes truly free from outside meddling. ( as in my diagram above).

Much will now depend on the power that be whether this is going to be truly independent or whether this is just a cosmetic change over the old ACA.

We will have to wait and see..

5 crucial months

The Prime Minister has decided to step down after March 2009 . This has been expected given the maneuvering and politicking in the past few months , following the disastrous results in the March 8 GE , especially in West Malaysia.

Now he has barely 6 months in his term.

These 5 months can , however, be the most crucial period of his political life. He can choose to step back and relax, in which case history may not have kind words for him, apart from the fact that he has opened up Malaysia a wee bit, following the strong man rule of his predecessor.

Or, if he cares for how history views his legacy, he can push through the reforms that he has advocated in 2004 as well as the 2008 GE.

At the very least, he should push for an ICAC and a Judicial Appointments Commission. An ICAC will slowly change the culture of corruption that is now so rampant, that even certain MP can ask the authority to “close one eye”.  To have a truly Independent Commission of Anti corruption will go a long way to tackle the corrupt practices that have added cost to doing business and that have contributed to so much of our nation’s woes. Get a few big fish and the rest will feel the pressure.

An Independent Judiciary is the basis of democracy and the foundation stone of the concept of “Rule by Law”.  All men, irrespective of his social status, must be treated fairly and equally under the law, and an Independent Judiciary will be the best guarantee for that basic right.

 Our Judiciary, as we all know from the Lingam Tape Royal Commission report, has been subjected to influence and interference from the executive, which runs counter to the concept of separation of powers, the basic tenet of democracy. So, the PM  must really push through the establishment of this Commission, which will be the first step toward the long journey to gain back the past glory and respect of our Judiciary.

Another thing which the PM should push is to abolish the NEP. There is a recent survey by Merdeka Centre that the majority of Malaysians wanted NEP to be abolished, including 65 percent of our Malay brothers.

The NEP which has good objectives of restructuring the society and eradicate poverty irrespective of race but has been skewed to suit certain interests,  has been the main reason for the polarisation of the various ethnic groups and the loss of meritocracy as well as the decreasing  competitiveness in the economic arena. While it is difficult to dismantle something that has been in place for so many years, at least the PM can take certain steps to initiate this change. Affirmative actions should rightly be based on ” merits” and “need”.

As PM, he still has the power to do so, and since he has already decided to step down, there is really no eed to please anyone in UMNO anymore except to lay down the foundation for the betterment of the country and the people. Push these as hard as possible, and the people will be behind him in this war against the corrupt warlords and little Napoleons.

With five months to go, those who are pessimistic will say that he would be a lame duck PM, but those who are optimistic consider this the best opportunity to carry out reforms. How history views him will depend on his resolve and commitment in these few months to initiate change.

We have to buck up to prevent being marginalised

In November 2006, I wrote an article “Will Malaysia be marginalised”?  In the article, I quoted certain figures to argue that economically, Malaysia was being marginalised by world community and that other countries in the region are fast catching up.

I posted then  2 tables from data I collected:

Table one was the total market capitalisation of   the stock markets of some of the countries in this region at end of 1996 and 2005.

 

While  market capitalisation of stock markets of most other countries in the region in 2005 exceeded that of 1996, Malaysia stood out for having a market capitalisation of its stock market smaller in 2005 than 1996.

Then I posted a 2nd table:

(data from UNCTAD)

Malaysia FDI performance index was ranked NO.4 in the world in 1990, whereas its ranking in 2005 was NO 62, a drastic drop by any means. But even then in 2005, Inward FDI was still more than outflow of investment from the country.

The latest UNCTAD World Investment Report 2008 was a shocker. Malaysia’s foreign direct investment (FDI) outflow surpassed inflow for the first time last year, with net outflow amounting to almost RM9 billion. While many can argue that this is because many Malaysian companies are investing abroad, we can counter argue that not many overseas investors are bringing money to invest in Malaysia compared to 10 or 20 years back. (Malaysia’s fall on the Inward FDI Performance Index to 71st position last year from 67th in 2006 and 62 in 2005, which is a real cause for worry).

Malaysia economy is now a pale shadow of its former self compared to ten or even 15 years ago. That maybe one reason why even local companies prefer to invest overseas when our own economy badly needs investment funds to enable it to move up the technological ladder so that it can compete with its former rivals, such as Singapore , Hong Kong, taiwan, and South Korea, which are now miles ahead of our country.

The Philippines was the richest nation in South East Asia in the fifties.  It is now among the poorest in the region now. Why? Poor governance, corruption, leakages, wastage, cronyism, nepotism all contribute to the present state.

WIll Malaysia be like the Philippines? In 2006, my answer was no, because i thought then  we had a very healthy reserves, comfortable  current account surpluses and an intelligent workforce which understood English. I am not so sure now.

What has inflicted Philippines is in fact present in our society now: corruption, abuses, wastage, cronyism, nepotism, compromised government institutions, albeit at a smaller scale.. Unless we buck up, we will soon lose to other countries which will no doubt overtake us, just like South Korea and Taiwan, which have gone so far ahead of us that we may forget the fact that these countries were behind us even in the early 80s.

There were 3 observations in that article which are even more relevant now:

Malaysia is a pale shadow of itself compared to 10 years ago.

It is not because Malaysia is moving backward but rather other countries are moving faster forward.

even while accepting the NEP objectives, the debate should shift to how best to achieve this objectives with minimal market distortion.

 

The last point is important, because NEP skews the whole economy and actually retards our economic progress. We should be farsighted enough to do away with the restrictions under NEP, and then allow our businesses learn to stand up on their own merits, and only then can we expect our economy be moving forward again and benefiting all the people regardless of race.

916 embodies a hope – a hope to bring change !

This is my commentary in today’s MalaysianInsider.com:

The magical qualities of 916

COMMENTARY By Hsu Dar Ren

Today is 916. So much has been said about 916, it has become a magical figure!

Whether there is any change of government today is really not that important. 916 has become a symbol and a hope for many Malaysians, a hope for change and a change for the better. 916 also embodies a realisation that race based politics is no longer practical in multiracial Malaysia.

More and more people feel that a more equal treatment of all races should be practised. Grossly unfair and unequal treatment in economic , academic as well as  civil service have made racial polarisation worse. 51 years after Merdeka, the unequal practices have in fact impeded us and we are starting to see the degradation of many areas in our country.

Meritocracy is not practiced resulting in compromise of standards in universities, schools , civil services. NEP, whose original aims is to eradicate poverty irrespective of race, has been hijacked and skewed in in such a way that it has become the mother of all ills in the country,-,corruption, abuses , nepotism, cronyism.

While the “rats” used to hide under the tables and steal to eat, they have now emboldened to have come out onto the table and “eat” blatantly, even with plenty of onlookers looking at them. There is no more shame, to the extent that when a misdeed is reported, an “honourble’ can utter “please close one eye”.

A more equal policy that stresses on meritocracy is the only way to steer this country, which has all the potential to be a great nation, back to respectability again. It is the only way to steer the country toward the aim of becoming a developed nation. The only way to become a united nation.

916 has come to represent this hope to achieve all these.

Whether it can be realised today or a few days down the road, or even at the next election is no more important. It has succeeded in waking up the silent majority of the people, who have come to struggle side by side irrespective of race and religions, to fight for a fair and equal Malaysia.

Spare the rod and spoil the child

Updated at 8pm (see the end of post)

In Malaysia, somethings are very predictable. In fact, they are as predictable as the sun rises from the East.

One of them is, whenever someone from UMNO, not even the top echelon of leaders but one of the second or 3rd tier wannabes, utter certain racial slurs, the component parties leaders will raise a great  hue and cry. Police reports would be made. Demands that action be taken against the fellow would be made. In the end, everything will quieten down and nothing much will come out of it.

 The recent case of a UMNO division chairman is a good example (read my earlier post). PM has already said that this fellow did not mean what he said. Perhaps what he means is that  all of us can go around scolding and insulting people and then say, I do not mean it.  But in the end, I am sure nothing will come about the whole incident. (Not even a sorry, but maybe a regret!! )

The next predictable thing is the Auditor General”s report. Year in and year out, there would be the same abuses and the same wastages reported and the same promise of action; but again , no action is made to punish the errand officers and the wastage will go on unchecked.

A company, with no previous experience  and not even a license to handle radioactive materials, were given the contract to supply PET scan machines, which are highly sophisticated imaging machines and required special expertise in knowledge of radioactivity.  And the contract is worth 33 millions. We can cry our heads off, but I can assure you this thing will continue unabated and no one would even lift an eyebrow.

All these are about rules and laws. There must not be 2 sets of rules- which is eactly the case in our country-  one for the lay people , and one for the powerbrokers or senior officers.

In the first instance, without any action being taken against this division chairman who uttered racial slurs, others will be emboldened and racial insults will be  hurled again and again. Well, nothing can be done, but the power-that-be forgets that the people are smart now. They know they are  the masters, even though only on one day every 5 years. . They will know what to do the next round going to the polls.  In the end, not only the component parties suffer because of the arrogance of UMNO members (they have only themselves to blame for being so subservient), even UMNO candidates will be rejected , as more and more people realise that racial politics will not be good for the advancement of the country.

Similarly with all the government abuses and misuse of funds. If these things are left unchecked, sooner or later , there will be a day when our coffers will all go to private pockets and  nothing will be left for your future generations.

But will things change? Again, this is predictable. Things will not change.

There is a saying that ” spare the rod and spoil the child”. In the case of SIngapore and Hong Kong, they do not spare the rods and they have efficient government and civil services to face the challenges of globalisation. In our case, sadly, it is again predictable that rods will never be used against certain politicians and those elites with connections.

………………………………………….

Update  Latest from the Star online at 8pm:

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno, the backbone of the ruling Barisan Nasional government, has issued a public apology over a remark made by Bukit Bendera Umno division head Datuk Ahmad Ismail during the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election last month.

“We hope that the non-Malays will not be too disturbed with the statement and we apologise if it has incurred the sensitivities or unhappiness over the statement.

“We apologise, Umno apologises although it is not our statement but it is a statement made by one of our division leaders. It is totally unwarranted and does not reflect the position and the attitude of Umno or the leadership of Umno. We regret it very much,” Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Umno deputy president, said here on Tuesday.

 I am really puzzled! Why should one person made the remark and another person apologises for it. It does not make sense at all !!!  Malaysia Boleh!