Below is an extract of the speech by Umno veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at the launch of ‘The Shafee Yahaya Story – Estate Boy to ACA Chief’, a book written by Shafee’s wife Kalsom Taib.
The word ‘corruption’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to break’ or ‘to destroy’. Corruption is a cancer that steals from the poor, eats away at governance and moral fibre, and destroys trust.
Although corruption exists in both the private and public sector, the corruption of the public sector is a more fundamental evil. This is because the public sector is the enforcer and arbiter of the rules that hold us together, the custodians of our common resources.
It is time we recognise corruption as the single biggest threat to our nation. In our economy, corruption is the root of our inability to make the economic leap that we know we are capable of. There is no other reason why a country so blessed with natural resources, a favourable climate and such immense talent should not have done a lot better than we have.
In our political system, corruption is the real reason why our political parties refuse to reform. Some people say the party I belong to has debased a once noble nationalism and a concern with the welfare of marginalised people into a rush for the gravy train.
They also said that the economic development we must bring our people is reduced to nothing more than patronage, and patronage is inflated into a right.
Everyone takes a cut
Therefore, it appears that the root cause is in our political parties. It is an open secret that tender inflation is standard operating procedure. Within the parties and among politicians, it is already an understood matter that party followers must be ‘fed’. Politics is an expensive business, after all. Where else are we to get the funds?
Thus, theft of public goods is normalised and socialised among an entire community, and what we had planned to attain by capability is seen by some as something to be attained through politics.
Politicians are the villains in this piece, but they themselves are also trapped. The leadership is trapped because they are beholden to political followers who demand that they are looked after. They demand patronage, and turn the party’s struggle for the welfare of a community into their sense of entitlement to that patronage. So they take their slice of the project.
By the time they and each person down the line all the way down to the contractor takes a lot and there is not enough left to do a decent job, bridges collapse, highways crack, stadiums collapse, hospitals run out of medicine, schoolchildren are cheated in their textbooks. Corruption may look to its perpetrators like a crime without victims, but it leaves a trail of destruction.
No domain seems safe. Some say that the humble school canteen is the domain of party branch chiefs. The golf course becomes a favoured way to pass the cash over. We can place bets for RM5,000 a hole. For some reason, one party keeps losing. And there are 18 holes. Money thus obtained is legal. It can be banked in.
We spend billions on the refurbishment of defence equipment; on fighter jets, frigates and submarines. When a supplier lays on an exorbitant commission to some shadowy middleman, that commission is built into the price the government pays. That money comes from the ordinary Malaysian.
Military toys
Military toys are very expensive. I remember from my time in the Finance Ministry. Even then, patrol craft cost about RM280 million each.
We loved Exocet missiles. As minister, I had to sign each time the military fired an Exocet missile for testing.
Every time, we test fired one of them, RM2 million literally went out with a bang.
When the UK went to war against Argentina, the UK government tried to borrow them from us because outside of the UK, we had the most of them in the world. We must have been under some extraordinary military threat which I did not understand.
The list is long: procurement of food and clothing for the military, medicine for hospitals and so on. In all these things, the government has been extraordinarily generous. And paid extraordinarily high prices.
Government servants have to face pressure from politicians who expect to be given these contracts because they need money for politics. This corruption is justified because the party’s struggle is sacred. The civil servants can either join the game or be bypassed.
For every government job big or small that goes down, someone feels entitled to a slice of the pie, not because they can do the job, not because they have some special talent or service to offer, but because it is their right.
They do not realise that what they demand is the abuse of power for the sake of personal gain, or party gain. They elect those leaders among themselves who are most capable of playing this game.
So we get as our leaders people who have distinguished themselves not by their ability to serve the public but at their long proven ability to be party warlords, which is to say, distributors of patronage. And that is a euphemistic way of saying that because of corruption the old, stupid and the criminal are elevated to positions of power while young, talented and honest individuals are frozen out.
Game over
Corruption destroys national wealth, erodes institutions and undermines character. And it also destroys the process by which a community finds its leaders.
The consequence of this is that the majority are marginalised. Government contracts circulate among a small group of people. Despite all attempts at control and brainwashing, the majority soon catch up to the game.
This game cannot last forever. The longer it is played the more people hate the government and the governing class. They vote against the government, not for the opposition. They resent the government of the day. In 2008, we saw how the Malaysian people feel about the abuse of power and incompetence caused by corruption.
Since party funding has become the excuse and the vehicle for wholesale corruption, any measure we take to fight it must include the reform of political funding.
It is time we enact a law regulating donations to political parties. Donations must be capped. No donor is to give more than a specified limit, on pain of prosecution. This is to prevent special interests from dominating parties. Such money is source of corruption.
Let us limit political donations by law. On top of that, let the government set up a fund to provide funding to registered political parties for their legitimate operational needs. This money can be distributed based on objective criteria and governed by an independent panel. This would close off the excuse that the parties need to raise political funding through government contracts.
Another idea is that we should freeze the bank accounts of people who are being investigated for corruption. Public servants and politicians are by law required to be able to demonstrate the sources of their assets. Those with suspiciously ample assets should have these assets frozen until they can come up with evidence that they have accumulated them legally.
This may sound harsh, but only because we live in a country in which almost no one ever gets nabbed for corruption. In China, those found guilty are shot.
Impotent MACC
In Malaysia, we read about Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating this and that but there are no convictions. No one has been punished. We are the nation with no consequences. The MACC finds no fault. The courts do not convict. And our newspapers do not have the independence and vigour to follow up.
We have an MACC with no results. It was a good idea to model our anti-corruption agency after one of the most successful in the world, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). However we have taken just bits and pieces of that model. So really this will be no more than PR exercise unless we adopt the model wholesale.
We should repeal the Official Secrets Act (OSA) so that people can go to the MACC and the authorities with documentary information on corrupt practice. As things stand, any document which might be incriminating to corrupt public officials is stamped an official secret. A whistleblower risks seven years jail for being in possession of such documents.
We need to identify rot eating through our roots as a nation. It is corruption. We cannot expect the corrupt to embrace reform. It is time for our citizens to stand up and call corruption by its name, and demand reform.
Whenever he n other UmnoB/BNputras talked n wrote abt racial politics, Ketuanan Melayu, NEP, corruption, nepotism, incompetent governance, etc – they TALK AYAM JANTAN (d cork cork type) n rubbish
Want 2 b saints aah?
In fact, they R d EVIL, SELFISH, ANTI-NATIONAL, CORRUPT, USELESS politicians who destroy n bankrupt d nation, n exploit their own kind while enriching themselves 4 don’t know how many generations
Even now, we have dis stupid Gerakkan Gerakan grp in Penang – wants 2 save Gerakan, 4 what? 2 b trampled n beheaded by UmnoBputras? Close shop lah
Nice piece on corruption by Tunku Razaleigh.
But why say it now?
Tunku Razaleigh smartness is welknown throughout the world…but his selfish cunning racist character…only Malaysians know that well.
He is finished….exactly like Mahathir.
One must not forget…Mahathir was Tunku Razaleigh arch enemy in UMNO….yet he supported Mahathir few years ago fighting Pak Lah…thinking UMNO Supreme Council will nominate him to be UMNO President..with Mahathir’s support.
Now known Mahathir have no influence over the Supreme Council…Tunku trying to live out his remaining life with truths coming out from his mouth?
Yes…he is at least 20 years too late to talk like that.
At least he is making the sensible comments. Mamakthir is the worst of human beings. He argued for NEP to continue to fed the corrupt UMNO and its subsidiary, the Malaysian government services. So najib cannot survive without warords to keep him in position at the supreme council whether or not there were skeletons in his closet.
The political dead Mamakthir who could not even get elected in a UMNO branch election now joins UMNO outcast in Perkasa to spread venoms against the country. Mamak claims that May 13 was class struggle; it was between Tunku and Harun supported by Razak.
What said above are not news but common knowledge. Defense ministry is another most corrupt and the sum involved was huge. We know all those companies involved with defense equipment have to exorbitant sum as commission all the way.
what refreshing on the above may be was that it come from KU Li. But again I find this Ku Li is funny and he seem still love UMNO so much and still to UMNO and seem he has no other party that seem he can offer his service to the people. What he say is nothing and has no effect as he is a lost politician and is no longer effective by sticking to UMNO. He is better shut out and retire from politic if he still remain with UM-NO
Tender price for Maggi-mee = $3.60 per pkt
Consumption = 50,000 per day x $ 3.60 = $180,000 per day x 30 days = $540,000 per month x 12 = 6.8 million x 5 years = 34 million
Cost only 30 cent per pkt
Corruption is where lucrative govt or GLC’s positions are dished out to buy political allegiance or round tripping bribes given in exchange for awarding of contracts and licences.
The race instead of need based based implementation of the NEP has provided the perfect veil, camouflage and pretext for corrupt practices to be carried out on race justification lines.
This is one of the reasons as what Ku Li said no one is napped. A champion of race is justified upon premises that the taker is receiving benefits in line with national objective of correcting wealth imbalance on racial lines.
This means that for so long as the majority voters are “distracted” to continue voting on racial lines in support of candidates based on their communal and racial agenda than probity and integrity, corruption will always thrive under that convenient cover.
It also means that unless there is a paradigm change in mindset (away from racial thinking/attitudes), the scourge of corruption here cannot be ameliorated.
If it takes a thousand year for change in mindset to do away with racial policies, then corruption will subsist here for just as long, a thousand year.
From that perspective, he who thrives on the corrupt system and wishes it to subsist and continue most will equally have an interest in playing the race card and to keep races polarised in support of communal politics.
For it is precisely the play on primodial sentiments of race that distracts voters’ focus from the corrupt practices perpetrated under the cover of affirmative programs/policies.
The difference between Ku Li and Mamakthir is that Ku Li rails against corruption but still remains within a party whose policies conduce to it whereas Mamakthir defends vociferously the continuation of these policies, against the idea of change.
D only way 2 stop corruption by UmnoB/BNputras n civil servants is 2 execute 1 or some of them: face d firing squad n bang
Nicely said by an honest Statesman who values our democratic society and our struggles. Just imagine how much our Mamakthir and cronies cheated our national wealth. They not only cheated us but that Mamakthir left us with lots of baggages. He has over over build our development and it cost us a bomb to maintain including losses in some ‘white elephants’. Our future government will not be able to create a surplus account due to the baggages and the continuity of our ‘open’ corruption practices. There’s no more remedies in our corruption and we must act as ONE, ‘People’s Power’ to overthrow BN with a ‘RED CARD’ in the coming general elections.
Coming soon – “Mutiny in UMNO”
Starring – Prince Ku Li
Co-starring – Toon Bak Kut Teh
Next Change – “The Rise and Fall of Pink Lips”
Starring – Roast Kacang Mah
Why is so much talking about corruption? Initiate realistic and concrete steps to fight it and at least try to eliminate it.What Ku Li said is everybody’s knowledge?But what for?If he is sincere in fighting corruption in his party,he should do something now.Maybe he can leave Umno and join another political party like PKR.
Read the MalaysiaInsider Report of June 20 under heading “NEP punishes talented Malays too, says Nazir Razak”
link –
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/nep-punishes-talented-malays-too-says-nazir-razak/
Without doubt, there r successful n talented Malays, many 1st generation NEP benefactees
Well done, congratulations
It’s time they stand up n declare dat “we will not want any more special privileges under NEP; no, thank you, we can compete fair n square, n we can raise our kids n buy our houses WITHOUT special scholarships, free residential schools, 5 to 8% discounts for Bumiputras, special share allocations 4 Bumiputras, etc. We don’t need tongkat or fish, cos we know how 2 fish with our brain n talents. Let all other economically disadvantaged Malay n non-Malay Malaysians enjoy NEP. We REJECT d racist politics n corrupt practices of MMK, UmnoB, n Perkasa. We want 2 work with all Malaysians, b united internally within M’sia n compete against other nations globally. Bring wealth fr abroad 2 d nation so dat all will benefit.”
Then, M’sia may hv some hope 2 survive as a nation
And don’t forget that UMNO/BN has five decades to change the laws to favour themselves!!
So, how to fight them within the confines of the laws?
Is it possible for anyone to not notice the goings-on during all these years? Even with the MSM trying their best to shield the miscreants?
Malaysians are selling themselves short!
THAT’S THE REALITY!!!
I’m very puzzled why VIP people like Tengku, who have a say in the development of the country have not nipped the buds of corruption during the past. Why have they, and the rakyat at large, allowed our beloved country to trod down this road of destructions every where. We want our contry back please.
“We can place bets for RM5,000 a hole. For some reason, one party keeps losing. And there are 18 holes. Money thus obtained is legal. It can be banked in.’
Now I understand why some people like to play 36 holes, all morning long. On government time too.
Best name jibby’s kitten is
A. 1altantuya
B. 1cronyism
C. 1nepotism
D. 1corruption
E. 1bankruptmalaysia
“ringthetill” writer….very simple answer.
All UMNO B influential politicians and ministers and same goes with the BN ones too..are all performing for their personal interest….as we can see right now..all the truths are out….since UMNO B lost few States…no more so call secret this or that nonsense to keep Malaysians away from knowing the truths.
Kuli cannot be PM…as he needs to play ball to keep his personal desire to be PM one day.
Now…no more chance…he speaks out what we like to hear…20 years too late.
Just read and never trust him.
The one and only one UMNO B man we can respect and trust is Tunku Rhittauddin who said long ago…”Umno is corrupted to the core”…with no selfish ulterior motives.
Yes…some stick to UMNO as members…for the love of the party.
However…all those should resign now…including Tunku Rhittauddin…if they understand the UMNO b now s no more the old original UMNO…formed by Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Why they still stick to UMNO B and indirectly support Mahathir…baffles me….unless..all are there afraid to be exposed as a corrupted man with no protection from UMNO B anymore.
The…’UMNO is corrupted to the core” include the one who spoke that?
Nothing surprises Malaysians anymore.
“We can place bets for RM5,000 a hole. For some reason, one party keeps losing. And there are 18 holes. Money thus obtained is legal. It can be banked in.’
To add to Sheriff Singh’s:Now I understand why some people like to play 36 holes, all morning long. On government time too.
Now can’t we understand why Gomen and VT want to legalise sports betting? Another loophole for illegal corrupt money to distribute legally.
This is truly mother of world class corrupt practice.
Malaysiakini:
Dr. Tan: ‘Gov’t meddling’ caused Felda’s overruns”
Question 1: What thousands of FELDA settlers want to know is what happened to the billions of RINGGIT reserves that FELDA had.
Question 2: Is there the equivalent of another PERIMEKAR and was there a commission of RM500 million as well – brokerage fees or whatever – in the deal for the new HQ?
Question 3: Is there the equivalent of an ALtantuya or any other Mongolian girl involved in thee Felda deal? Hey, look, we don’t want another girl C$’d. Can u understand that there may be fatjers or sons or husbands who will weep and weep and weep!
FELDA settlers have a right to know.
… is an extract of the speech by Umno veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at the launch of ‘The Shafee Yahaya Story – Estate Boy to ACA Chief’, a book written by Shafee’s wife Kalsom Taib.
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Hope wifes of those Department heads will write Books of their Husbands, and, Ku Li is still around and still be invited to talk on the launch of those books. So, that we can heard more on the “Confessions” of UMNO’s top guy!!
A good speech to indicate “what the use of being an estate boy to ACA chief when NO meaningful corruption has really been acted”?
I believe most probably NOT any single Department Head in Malaysian History can stand-up and testified and be verified that THEY have done their JOB!!
What had Ku Li done during his time?
Another aspect of corruption that is not spoken here is the disincentive to invest and perform. Its not just foreign investor who will not invest in a corrupt system, a corrupt system deter any investor local or foreign to invest and workers from performed simply because they cannot trust their money or labour will be fairly rewarded.
All the money made by the cronies will be the first to pull out when things don’t look easy. Forget doing the hard enterprise, if the money-making does not come easy, they rather pull it out and put it elsewhere.
Without a consistent, transparent system, its not just the capital that will run, why would labour work harder when their work goes to feed on their enslavement? The logical step for a high-value-labour economy would be to leave rather than build.
Brain-drain comes AFTER capital flight. In other words, all the people you see leaving, its preceded by underlying capital flight already taken place just previously masked by other things.
All those things are just coming out after decades of being masked by Mahathirism
Daim was quoted in yesterday’s chinese paper (sorry cant remember which one) to have said that umno would retake kedah and selangor in GE13.
But here kuli said: “This [corruption] game cannot last forever. The longer it is played the more people hate the government and the governing class. They vote against the government, not for the opposition. They resent the government of the day. In 2008, we saw how the Malaysian people feel about the abuse of power and incompetence caused by corruption.”
308 outcome was surprising but not, even then, totally unexpected. The event was certainly not a one day incident nor a single burst of some activities adverse to umno. That outcome was the culmination of a long brewing dissatisfaction people had with umno’s arrogance, abuse of position, incompetence, wonton corruption (on mega scale) and completely unnecessary waste (also on mega scale) of public money.
The almost weekly protests on-going then were instrumental in triggering the change. They gave people the courage to vote pakatan – to tell umno that enough is enough. Street protests are a lot less these days – in fact since 308. Umno read this as a sign of return to normalcy. By this umno no doubt meant voters’ return to umno. They are clearly wrong and therefore they were completely shocked by voters’ sentiments even 11/12 by-elections later, ie after 308. The desire for change is still burning. And more importantly the burning now is obviously not fueled by street protests (nor by the anwar issue, which is another misreading by umno). It was and still is a burning desire to boot umno, pure and simple – a desire which is driven by an oversized dissatifaction now bursting around the seams.
308 tells voters a few things.
First, the true and real power of the ballot box. The seemingly simple act of dropping the ballot paper into the box can and do bring about real changes. Before then, voters were highly sceptical.
Second and this is crucial, unlike the 1969 umno instigated may 13 incident, a change today is highly highly unlikely to bring about a similar event. Perkasa has fallen flat on its nose. Its first general meeting could only attract 5000 participants (10000 were invited) and its first organised mass rally (to invoke may 13-like sentiments) attracted only 1000 people (again they anticipated 10000). Actually if ketuanan is all they wanted to bangkitkan, I suspect people would rather do it in private. Voters are not longer scared by umno’s politics of fear.
Thirdly, the pakatan controlled states did not collapse. Despite all the trojan horses released and all the spanners thrown in by umno, these state government were not doing too badly. This is good enough justification for change. Umno’s attempt to cast doubt on the ability to govern by some inexperienced people is clearly misplaced.
All in all, I believe that more people would feel more confident and comfortable voting pakatan in GE13. The 11/12 by-election results after GE12 said so.
Daim, you are wrong!
The people of Kuala Lumpur should ask Mamakthir what happened to the money allocated for building Plaza Rakyat! Plaza Rakyat is in such a sorry state, with only the LRT station within its walls and the rest are just skeletons standing around in THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY OF KUALA LUMPUR since 1998!
To ALL readers & commentators : Complained and whinned ALL you want,there is NOTHING,absolutely NOTHING you ALL can do. However there is one and ONLY one thing which we ALL can and SHOULD do viz is start your own “VOTER-get-VOTERS” campaign for PR. Do it not tommorrow but NOW cos GE13 is just around the corner..closer than you think. Start this ” VOTER-get-VOTERS 4 PR” campaign NOW by chain emails,sms,words of mouth to everyone….for a BETTER Malaysia..Join us at “VOTER-get-VOTERS for a Better Malaysia ” in facebook.
I just dun bloody understand why all the readers and commentators are so upset and burning with hatred for BN……Is there anything you can do about it?..None huh?.
So just relax lah…..work hard and harder to get more new voters for PR via your own ” Voter get Voters” campaign for PR.
Then comes GE 13 we can bloody Fcuk BN good & proper. Smart me huh?