CORRUPTION is a cancer, for, much like the disease, it wreaks havoc on its victim and eradication is no easy matter. If allowed to spread unchecked, it kills. Many a prosperous state is left on the verge of failure as a result of rampant corruption. Close to home is the Philippines, once the richest nation of Southeast Asia, which is now struggling to make a comeback after the obscene rampage of cronyism under the Marcos regime. Another is Indonesia, rated among the most corrupt nations by Transparency International (TI). If Malaysia is to become a high-income and developed nation by 2020, something drastic must happen to improve the country’s ranking in TI’s Corruption Perception Index. Currently sitting midway under a pile of some 50 nations, efforts to eradicate corruption must start aggressively.
The strengthening of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has led to some unrelenting activity. Last month witnessed the busting of a smuggling syndicate based at Port Klang, implicating several Customs officers, including a couple of senior ones, who were financially-induced to look the other way. So blasé were they that they openly lived beyond their means. This under-cover operation took several years. While welcoming the arrests, there were some — including a regular columnist in these pages — who wondered when the authorities would go after those who offered the bribes. True enough, in recent days, the MACC is making a beeline for the corrupters. Obviously working together with officers ready to have their palms greased, some 30 bribe-givers have been nabbed and will be charged next week. The nature of the bribes span a broad array of offences involving all manner of government enforcers from local authorities to the police. In Sarawak, meanwhile, a slew of prosecutions by the MACC will soon be underway for the crime of illegal logging, which includes an enforcement officer who has been blinkered by graft. Indeed, if public servants have had the fear of shame driven into them by last month’s incident involving the Customs Department, given the massive media coverage, then they will come forward to report approaches made by corrupters.
The commission has described its modus operandi as holistic, intending the ultimate eradication of all manner of corrupt practices — bribery is but one — at every level of society. As promising as this may sound, it takes the kind of cooperation only unbesmirched, likely to be young, fresh enforcement officers can offer. Those already on the game will lay low to protect their skin. As such, to take the bribe-givers head-on would not only discourage the activity, they may be privy to information that will allow the net to be cast wider. Also, having the media acting in concert to shame those caught will act as clear deterrent to others. A reformed psyche is one driven by unmitigated dread of the MACC’s spring cleaning exercise, which is without fear or favour, sweeping clean right into every nook and corner.