Labels:

Pakatan Rakyat Strongest point: Endemic Corruption of Barisan Nasional Ruling government.

Unknown 9 June 2014


Each of the side, BN and PR have their strongest facts and principle. In my observation, one of the strongest points that PR have against the government today is the endemic corruption and its effect to our nation.
According to transparency international report 2011, two sectors are most corrupt which is the grand corruption and its police. Grand corruption means the corruption that involves elite and the one that have position. It shows that the majority of Malaysians rejects corruption, but it we still in the position of 60 out of  182 under transparency international Corruption Perception Index  in 2011.[i] The best rank that we achieved in Transparency International is at 2006 which is ranked 43 out of 163 in 2003. Ironically, there is a statement made by the Pahang MB mention that Rent Seeking OK as long as everyone benefits. (The Malaysian Insider, 28 May 2011). [ii]
According to Datuk Seri Nazir Razak Chief of CIMB group, on July 2 reported by Malaysia Insider Corruption blocking Malaysia leap into the higher income status.  [iii]Corruption has a negative impact on productivity in the long term because it raises the cost of doing business. High levels of corruption reduce economic growth.  It can distort the allocation of resources and the performance of government in many ways. (UNDP, 2000).One of the most popular issues involve corruption is National Feedlot Company (NFC) where it involves its  Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail the husband of former Ministry of Women Development affairs  with the amount of misuse RM250 million Ringgit.[iv]
The funny thing is that all of the board of directors was her family members with a very high salary. This project actually initiates by the government to back up national supply of short of beef. Because Malaysia had been a huge amount of beef reported by the Veterinary Services Department last year it Malaysia had imported 25.3 tonnes of beef worth RM 3.7 million and the demand are expected to increase in the long term because the rise of income.(News Straits Times ,8 May 2012).
If the project successful it will reduce the price of beef in the country and cause Malaysia not too dependent of imported beef. In contrast, RM250 Million of taxpayer money is lost.
They are plenty of cases have not been investigated down there. It includes some of the gigantic projects are overpriced Dayabumi projects in mid 1980s and the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) as the tallest twin tower in the world.Beside projects, PETRONAS also been used to finance rescue Bank Bumiputra twice in the 1980s and 1990s. (Jomo K.S & E.T Gomez.2000.p.280)[v]
Among South East Asia, Malaysia is not the worst, if compare with Thailand and Indonesia. We are just behind Singapore and Brunei. However, in order to realize the aspiration of achieving developed nation in 2020, we must get rid of this disgusting culture. Corruption can affect the county in term of politics. The grant corruption enshrined the culture of “crony capitalism” and rent seeking. According to Bribe Pay Index 2011 report, in Malaysia one of the highest percentage of the bribe is in Public works contracts and construction Industry.There are few huge companies that are related to UMNO as the ruling party and the party will do everything to save them. These activities were called as political patronage.
Some of it was Renong Group led by Halim Saad UMNO members that has cornered highway construction and related activities.( See Gomez 1994).
The link between business and political will open up bias towards the contract tender and others. In 1990s, there are many new rich have been born under the New Economic Policies which and benefits from this link between business and political parties and create unfair competition. Some of it were  Tajuddin Ramli, Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah, Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, T.Ananda Krishnan, T.K.Lim and Ting Pek khiing. ( E.T.Gomez 1999 p,121). Because of this link, they will have access to business opportunities and expected them to support their political patrons. This has led to wasteful deployment of economic resources. In short, this what causes some funny project involve the building of bridge worth RM 20.3 million heading nowhere towards the bush in Pantu Sarawak. (MalaysiaKini 19 October 2012)
One of the most serious body involves in corruption is policed. However, we know that not all police are corrupt. They are term call “petty corruption”. According to Minister of Home Affairs survey, 70% of the citizens are pressured to bribe the police officers.  [vi] The Merdeka Research Center also find out that the majority of the citizens feels that corruption is getting serious in the country.[vii]
 To make thing worse, the ex IGP admits that during his position, it is very hard to catch “ah long” or the money lender because they are ties between those people and politician. Tan Sri Musa Hassan mentions that every time he captured the person involve, some of politician and minister will come to the office and ask him “what do u arrest this man, he is my friend “.[viii](MalaysiaKini 30 May 2012). Therefore, we can see that, the one that we expect to protect us are actually also trap in the corruption than are interlinkages.
Therefore, the corruption is the strongest point for Pakatan Rakyat has two critics the current government in the debate on the welfare state.



[i]   Corruption index 2011 from Transparency International: find out how countries compare, http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/01/corruption-index-2011-transparency-international [accessed on 22 November 2012]

[ii] Shazwan Mustafa Kamal http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pahang-mb-rent-seeking-ok-if-everyone-benefits [accessed on 22 November 2012]


[iii] Corruption blocking Malaysia’s leap into higher-income status, says Nazir Razak http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/malaysia/article/corruption-blocking-malaysias-leap-into-higher-income-status-says-nazir-razak/[accessed on 22 November 2012]

[iv] The RM250 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal – “shouldn’t someone go to jail”? http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2011/11/12/the-rm250-million-national-feedlot-centre-nfc-scandal-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cshouldn%E2%80%99t-someone-go-to-jail%E2%80%9D/[accessed on 22 November 2012]

[v] Jomo K.S & E.T Gomez (2000) ,The Malaysian Development Dilemma.Rent,Rent-Seeking and Economic Development,Theory and Evidence in Asia.Chapter 7.pp.274 -303.Cambridge University Press,New York.

[vii]  Malaysians see country as seriously corrupt
26-Nov-2009, Angus Reidhttp://merdeka.org/media/189-261109.html [accessed on 22 November 2012]

[viii] Bekas IGP: Ada orang politik marah 'rezeki' disekat , Ahmad Fadli KC http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/199345 [accessed on 22 November 2012]

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)