LAST year was a deluge of bad news for the world. No dispute here. Even as 2023 had only six days to go, it insisted on delivering one last horror to Malaysia.
On Dec 26, the police disclosed the arrest of a Datuk the previous night in Sabah, one of 10 syndicate members involved in a drug distribution network.
What is shocking is that the Datuk is alleged to have been using his position as a patron of a non-governmental organisation and other seemingly legitimate businesses of the syndicate as a cover for illegal activities.
A dozen companies spread across businesses such as tourism, construction, petrochemicals and manufacturing. Stealth has a sophistication of its own. What is alarming is that the syndicate has been at it since 2015 bringing in syabu from Thailand and distributing it here and as far away as Australia.
December had two more dreadful news. Last week, a 39-year-old Malaysian, an alleged drug dealer and key member of a drug syndicate, was arrested in a Thai-Laotian operation. On Dec 29, another Malaysian, this time an alleged drug kingpin on the run, was arrested in Vientiane, Laos.
The 41-year-old from Parit Buntar, who is said to be associated with a drug syndicate in Malaysia, is also a wanted man in Thailand. We are living in dangerous times, when it becomes difficult to tell commerce from crime. A perfect situation for criminals to launder dirty dollars.
Welcome to the age and place of seeming and being. But here is the critical question: is Malaysia willing, ready and able to confront such terrible times? Of the police we are sure. Start with willing. At the risk of losing their lives to bullets, they stand up against such armed criminals.
Of ready and able, too, we must grant the men and women in blue their due, though they're up against police informers. This is no speculation. It is a fact disclosed by the police to the media, not in one-on-one interviews but press conferences. But fighting terrible times isn't just a police story. It is a policymakers' and regulators' story as well.
Take the case of the Sabah syndicate. Its notoriety isn't a new discovery, but an eight-year-old sin. How did the syndicate manage to run, not one, but 12 businesses on drug money without being spotted?
When we talk of regulators, we hardly talk of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), but we must. If it is the job of SSM to register companies and guide their governance, it must surely include the minding of the people behind the companies.
The SSM must have the muscle to lift the veil of such companies to see if they are vehicles for money laundering. Granted, this takes time. But aren't eight years enough? Policymakers, too, must not leave everything to the police to manage, by which time crime would have donned the attire of commerce.
Take the Malaysia My Second Home programme (MM2H), whose aim is to attract wealthy foreigners to retire in the country. But it may not be just a boon story for Malaysia.
MM2H might be a bane one, too, if wealthy money launderers manage to slip past. Sure, there are rewards, but to miss risks would be a serious mistake. Terrible times call for exceptional vigilance.