The Brutal Truth About Corruption In Malaysia Where The Rakyat Continue To Be Poor

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Bribery is all part of the Malaysian way of overcoming obstacles.

It starts from young – when your driving instructor implies that he will fail you unless you give him a little something to help him pass you*, or when you’re stopped at a roadblock with an invalid license.

*12 Jan 2022: a reliable source has revealed that this practice is more to bribe JPJ officers than to bribe the examiners themselves

We have a cute little name for it too: duit kopi (coffee money). It’s pretty much a fact of life here in Malaysia.

There’s a saying that fines just mean that the crime is accessible to the rich. Like how those who can afford to pay parking summonses can park anywhere they like in KL.

In the same way, bribery makes crimes accessible to the rich. Or at least to those who can afford the price.

People naturally tend to focus on the little corruption cases: someone paying RM500 to a policeman because they were drunk driving perhaps, or maybe even the small business that illegally employs foreign workers paying a bribe of RM25,000 to keep the authorities quiet.

But crimes get bigger as you go up the socioeconomic hierarchy – and corruption is no exception to this. Consequently, as the crimes get bigger so do the repercussions.

A recent case of corruption that you may have heard of is the case of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s chief Datuk Seri Azam Baki. For those out of the loop, he was discovered to own millions in publicly traded stock – civil servants are not allowed to own shares totalling more than RM100,000, according to s23 Service Circular 3/2000.

Source: Bernama

The innocence of Azam was professed by the chairperson of the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, Abu Zahar Ujang – who was also the person to “explain” during a special press conference that the shares were purchased by Azam’s younger brother in his name. That doesn’t sound suspicious at all…

MACC is apparently jokingly referred to as “mana ada corruption case”, especially when it comes to VVIPs. Malaysians have seen this event as mere confirmation of the suspicion that corruption extends far above what the average Malaysian will be able to see.

It certainly didn’t help matters that Azam said, “I don’t owe anyone any explanation.” A presumptuous statement considering government servants are accountable to the people of Malaysia – you know, the ones paying them?

This isn’t even the first time that MACC has had its reputation called into question.

The 1MDB scandal is just a bigger, badder version of what plays out in Malaysian politics.

At the time of the controversy, shock reverberated through the nation and it was enough to topple Umno’s stranglehold on the country’s politics.

But now?

There are some who believe that Najib might once again regain a foothold within the political sphere, especially since his involvement in the Malacca elections a few weeks back. And not just involvement in politics, mind you, but maybe even the position of Prime Minister (again).

Source: Coconuts KL

Unfortunately, despite everything, Najib still enjoys some measure of popularity.

And that is how normalised corruption is in Malaysia.

Corruption is not only evidence of moral failure in public servants but also a willingness in the leaders of our country, the keepers of the money we entrust to them to make the nation better for us all, to shortchange us.

And corruption leads to poverty.

This is because it significantly restrains the growth and development of a country.

These effects happen through political instability in the country as well. We can all agree that Malaysia is not exactly what we’d call a politically stable country, especially since we’re currently in the political climate established by a coup.

Political instability is a deterrent for foreign investors and we see that happening even now. A study has shown how corruption leads to poverty through political instability, which apparently accounts for 53% of the reduction in growth of a country.

Corruption also leads to wealth inequality. It’s not the palms of the peasants that will be greased magnificently, of course. It’s those of the people who are higher up, because they are the ones who make the important decisions.

And of course, corruption can lead to public services and projects that do little to benefit the people – either through services of inferior quality, or those that are not useful to the majority (our multiple towers, for example, unless you count souvenir shop owners).

A boy squatting outside a delapidated rural house

Either way, we bear the brunt of it.

We suffer the long waiting period of the KTM train, the underdeveloped infrastructure of East Malaysia, the floods during monsoons and water rationing during droughts.

And handshakes go on to hide banknotes.

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#Poverty #corruption #social commentary #political commentary

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The Brutal Truth About Corruption In Malaysia Where The Rakyat Continue To Be Poor

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The Brutal Truth About Corruption In Malaysia Where The Rakyat Continue To Be Poor

But crimes get bigger as you go up the socioeconomic hierarchy – and corruption is no exception to this. Consequently, as the crimes get bigger so do the repercussions.

The 1MDB scandal is just a bigger, badder version of what plays out in Malaysian politics.

And corruption leads to poverty.

Either way, we bear the brunt of it.

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