Dennis Ignatius
~ Provoking discussion, dissent & debate on politics, diplomacy, human rights & civil society.
Corruption: It’s time to march again!
23ThursdayJan 2025
Posted in civil society, corruption, good governance
[1] The same old pattern of corruption and political connivance is reasserting itself. Scandals like the one in Sabah is being papered over by ambitious men for their own convenience. Justice is being subverted. Lack of transparency in the award of major contracts is being normalized once more.
[2] In the meantime, criminals and crooks are pardoned, granted DNAAs and even appointed to high office. Clearly, what little gains were made in the last few years have been negated by the perfidy of our so-called ‘reformasi’ politicians. All that big talk about fighting corruption is but a chimera to delude the people. Madani’s war against corruption is fake, mendacious, disingenuous.
[3] Shockingly, they who were once beneficiaries of our disdain for corruption are now engaged in a series of efforts to stop anti-corruption protests from gaining steam. They threaten, they intimidate, they abuse their power like the UMNO warlords of old. The excuses they contrive to deny citizens the right to peaceful assembly is the kind that can only come when desperate and hypocritical politicians dig deep into the gutter. Why such desperate measures if they have nothing to hide, if they truly believe in fighting corruption?
[4] We marched for Anwar when he was in prison. We marched with Bersih for clean government and fair elections. We marched for Pakatan Harapan and all its promises of reform. We the people brought down the irredeemably corrupt UMNO-BN government and carried Anwar to Putrajaya. But Anwar (with the connivance of the DAP) brought UMNO back and now they side with UMNO against the people. Their voices against a just and righteous cause are no more. They’ve betrayed us, shattered our hopes for a better Malaysia.
[5] People are weary, jaded, disappointed. But if we give up, the corrupters win. If we give up, what’s left of our democracy will wither. We must not let the state intimidate us or prevent us from exercising our democratic right to tell our politicians what we think of them, that we see through their schemes, that corruption is not okay. It’s time to march again!
[Dennis Ignatius |Kuala Lumpur | 23rd January 2025]
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