EDITORIAL
Fry all the fish

2009/11/05

ONE member of parliament is in the dock for making eight false claims of RM10,000 each, and a former state assemblymen is on trial for seven fraudulent claims amounting to RM70,000. An aide to a state executive councillor has been charged with making a false claim for 2,500 car flags and two counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM5,000. A former assistant to a menteri besar has been indicted for deceiving a company chairman into making a political donation of RM50,000, and two other political aides have been charged with abetting their bosses. But instead of being encouraged by the crackdown, some have chosen to dismiss these prosecutions by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as "small fry" and the sums involved as "small change".

There's no question that the credibility of the much-maligned MACC is on the line and high-profile prosecutions and convictions would give it a shot in the arm and go some way towards appeasing its critics. Certainly, in a problem as persistent, endemic and systemic as corruption, where piecemeal changes and small actions are not enough, there's merit in making radical reforms and taking big steps. According to the "big fish" theory, if the anti-graft watchdog is serious about fighting corruption, it should be frying the big fish instead of going after the small fry. But that does not diminish the significance of the arrests, prosecutions and convictions of the so-called small fry. In the first place, while small-scale actions may appear to be insignificant, over a period of time, a cumulative series of such measures could produce large-scale results. Indeed, where corruption is concerned, it is the many smaller but widespread petty forms of corruption at the local and lower levels that have contributed to what has now become a big national problem. And it is at these humbler reaches and over a wider range of routine social, economic and political services that corruption has the most effect on most ordinary people in their everyday lives.

Make no mistake, the sums may be paltry and the lowlifes may be petty officials or small-time politicians, but they are just as morally despicable as the top bureaucrats and big-time politicians for abusing public office for private gain. At any rate, corruption is not a problem that can be attacked in isolation. There are seldom, if ever, easy fixes. But now that the government has vowed to curb corruption and punish the wastrels, it must relentlessly pursue the dishonourable and unprincipled wherever they may be.