S Thayaparan
Published: Mar 17, 2025 7:00 AM
Updated: 10:00 AM
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
COMMENT | When the MACC chief commissioner outed the whistleblower in the Sabah corruption scandal, we moved past the something rotten in Denmark stage to full-blown Denmark is rotting territory.
The outing of the whistleblower was the final nail in the coffin with regard to the graftbusting agency’s credibility. It also demonstrated Madani’s lack of competency and tactical thinking.
Latheefa Koya, the former MACC chief, has claimed that someone high up threatened the whistleblower. Let us assume that there is a conspiracy to silence the whistleblower and cover up this corruption scandal.
The politically strategic thing for Madani to do is to announce that the government takes these allegations extremely seriously and an investigation would be carried out.
The whistleblower would be afforded protection by the state, and the graftbusting body would have carried out an investigation.
This way, Madani could have stage-managed everything, mitigated the damage and generated optics that would make it seem that Madani was tackling corruption seriously.
Instead, what we witnessed was a manure show of epic proportions. This, to me at least, demonstrated that Madani does not even care what the rakyat thinks.
Published: Mar 17, 2025 7:00 AM
Updated: 10:00 AM
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
- Frédéric Bastiat
COMMENT | When the MACC chief commissioner outed the whistleblower in the Sabah corruption scandal, we moved past the something rotten in Denmark stage to full-blown Denmark is rotting territory.
The outing of the whistleblower was the final nail in the coffin with regard to the graftbusting agency’s credibility. It also demonstrated Madani’s lack of competency and tactical thinking.
Latheefa Koya, the former MACC chief, has claimed that someone high up threatened the whistleblower. Let us assume that there is a conspiracy to silence the whistleblower and cover up this corruption scandal.
The politically strategic thing for Madani to do is to announce that the government takes these allegations extremely seriously and an investigation would be carried out.
The whistleblower would be afforded protection by the state, and the graftbusting body would have carried out an investigation.
This way, Madani could have stage-managed everything, mitigated the damage and generated optics that would make it seem that Madani was tackling corruption seriously.
Instead, what we witnessed was a manure show of epic proportions. This, to me at least, demonstrated that Madani does not even care what the rakyat thinks.
Instead, the participants in this sordid drama are issuing laughable denials, the MACC by perception is seen to be either abetting or enabling their denials and the political class remains silent.
The way things are and will continue to be
Why, for instance, is the opposition not making this an issue? Well, because they understand that this is the way they are going to handle things when they assume power.
In fact, by remaining silent, they allow Madani to be the corrupt party in this, and what they say will not come back to bite their behinds when they assume power and do the same thing.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose platform on the campaign trail was governmental corruption and malfeasance, has now become the poster boy for enabling the kleptocratic class.
Anwar claimed the charges against his number two, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, were politically motivated.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left) and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
He has defended convicted felon and former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s reduced sentence. His home minister apparently has the power to define any location as a prison.
And now, of course, his number two publicly hopes that another former prime minister gets the “justice” he did when it comes to the latter’s corruption investigation.
If this is not a “wink, wink”, I do not know what is.
All part of complex, corrupt system
Let us be honest here. We can talk about “big fishes” when it comes to corruption, but recall when Pakatan Harapan was in power for the first time.
Remember when the investigation into former Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud - perhaps the white whale of oppositional talking points when it came to corruption - came to a standstill?
Then de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said: “They were not new evidence that would allow MACC to open a new investigation paper.”
At the time, Latheefa said of the status of high-profile cases: “However, not all complaints ended up being investigated, especially those with evidence which were just printouts from the internet.”
He has defended convicted felon and former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s reduced sentence. His home minister apparently has the power to define any location as a prison.
And now, of course, his number two publicly hopes that another former prime minister gets the “justice” he did when it comes to the latter’s corruption investigation.
If this is not a “wink, wink”, I do not know what is.
All part of complex, corrupt system
Let us be honest here. We can talk about “big fishes” when it comes to corruption, but recall when Pakatan Harapan was in power for the first time.
Remember when the investigation into former Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud - perhaps the white whale of oppositional talking points when it came to corruption - came to a standstill?
Then de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said: “They were not new evidence that would allow MACC to open a new investigation paper.”
At the time, Latheefa said of the status of high-profile cases: “However, not all complaints ended up being investigated, especially those with evidence which were just printouts from the internet.”
Former MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya
This was a really queer thing to say because Harapan made its case against corruption from printouts from the internet or at the very least had no problem making such cases against their political adversaries.
Now, do not get me wrong. I think that Latheefa and Lawyers For Liberty are doing good work here, but ultimately, what they are doing is exposing the corruption of the system in place, one which has been sustained because of the will of the political class and its factotums.
The entire political system of this country is part of a complex ecosystem of private and public interests that seek not only political hegemony but also religious hegemony.
We are not dealing with corrupt individuals within a system but rather a system of corruption with a few honest men and women.
Rotten to the core, for decades
Corruption is not a recent phenomenon, but rather it is part of the DNA of the organism fueled by racial and religious imperatives and a compromised electoral system.
Umno/BN designed the system, and Madani is attempting to replicate it, so any attempt at corrective measures is met by a deluge of propaganda or the spectre of the “Green Wave”.
This was a really queer thing to say because Harapan made its case against corruption from printouts from the internet or at the very least had no problem making such cases against their political adversaries.
Now, do not get me wrong. I think that Latheefa and Lawyers For Liberty are doing good work here, but ultimately, what they are doing is exposing the corruption of the system in place, one which has been sustained because of the will of the political class and its factotums.
The entire political system of this country is part of a complex ecosystem of private and public interests that seek not only political hegemony but also religious hegemony.
We are not dealing with corrupt individuals within a system but rather a system of corruption with a few honest men and women.
Rotten to the core, for decades
Corruption is not a recent phenomenon, but rather it is part of the DNA of the organism fueled by racial and religious imperatives and a compromised electoral system.
Umno/BN designed the system, and Madani is attempting to replicate it, so any attempt at corrective measures is met by a deluge of propaganda or the spectre of the “Green Wave”.
Let us not forget that when we talk of corruption we are not only talking about the corruption of the political elites but also of institutions which are considered sacred cows to the bangsa (race) and agama (religion) crowd.
So you see, even though I believe that there are many honest political operatives in Harapan, they are outnumbered by people who are willing to make compromises and sustain the system either for political gain or because they are so narcotised by their political party that to make waves would be detrimental to their political survival.
The tragedy here is that Madani is doing something about corruption, albeit nothing that would reform the system.
This is something that PN is not even capable of doing. When it comes to corruption in this country, it truly is the devil’s alternative.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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