What is next after King’s speech on corruption as top item?

What is next after King’s speech on corruption as top item?

Was it the speech of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 6^th March, 2017 in the Parliament that was prepared for him by the Prime Minister?  Was it his own speech as the King could have prepared it himself at the Palace?

Whoever prepared that speech, there is a glaring inaccurate picture of massive corruption which is in great urgency to drain the swamp in Putrajaya. 

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V expressed disappointment that fraud, corruption, leakages and leaks of government information involving government officials and former civil servants is still occurring.

His Majesty said although only a handful were involved in such activities, it had eroded the people's trust in the government. "As such I welcome the move to bring those involved to justice.

"The people must also give support by not being involved as the ones who offer bribery or possess unauthorised classified documents," His Majesty said when speaking at the official opening of the first meeting of the fifth session of the 13th Parliament here today.

I need to say that don’t leave everything to MACC to combat corruption but it is the responsibility of all to do so that we cannot fail the nation in 2050 as the BN/UMNO Government has failed vision 2020 mainly due to massive corruption.

The prevalent scenario cannot go on.

All the ministries especially those key ones and the Federal Audit Department (FAD) now headed by a non audit official should play their role in combating corruption otherwise we are doomed.

My personal experience albeit a few years in FAD had seen it all as how corruption could have occurred.  Corruption can come in all forms and can be hardly detectible as many could have escaped a life of corruption in the civil service to retire.  One very senior civil servant as head of a section in the early 1970s after I raised a major query even committed suicide over the corrupted debacle. I was blameless in that case which involved shortfall in the assessment of tax as a result of hanky panky.  Another case to be mentioned was that of an abuse of power by key officials with the intention to commit fraud after transfer RM5m from the Chief Minister Department in 1970 to the NGO for personal gain of same persons.

How many work in civil service and privatised companies like commissions and Government linked agencies ?  Can be in the region of 3 millions and more and so many more “buckets” for corruption to occur?

Federal Auditor General’s annual reports in recent decades do come out with many issues but such issues are just tips of the iceberg as the key powerful ministries with the most substantial annual allocations are likely excluded in the audit routine as civil servants and auditors are scared for their own rice bowl to audit these ministries properly.  Most likely only the lower levels are scrutinised selectively in a system beyond redemption.  Even queries would likely be ignored and how to pursue them without the support from the head of the Government?

Now that the King has stated clearly albeit under-emphasis, I hope that a good change is in the offing.

MACC’s response may mean nothing as its performance for decades had been lackadaisical and at best lips service.  Now MACC sets three years to clean civil service of corruption.  How would MACC do that with over 1.6 millions of civil servants not including those in Government agencies, commissions and Government linked companies?  Most of the times only small fishes were caught.  Even the moderate one in Sabah Water Department was done belatedly.

One especially glaring case is that Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) or Election Commission Malaysia has been untouched for so long and it is the fundamental process in the selection of Government for decades.  Don’t tell me MACC is not aware of the massive corruption going on in SPR even after the former Chairman of more than 20 years in office at the SPR had openly confessed to frauds and corruption.  Any dubious Government of such corrupted circumstances would be bad example for leadership.

Lets look at our nation’s civil service and its performance.

We now have one civil servant serving 19.37 people. The ratio is 1:110 for Indonesia, 1:108 for China, and 1:50 for South Korea. We won’t compare ourselves to the low ratio of 1:71.4 in Singapore because it’s a small island with hardly any rural population.

But why is our civil service so bloated at 1.6m civil servants?  With such a bloated civil service, most civil servants at all strata could have plenty of time to dabble in the corruption culture and behaviour of little Napoleons to extorted bribes and frauds as many have little job to perform to occupy their time at the office. Also when some civil servants are seconded to commissions and GLCs, they bring with them the culture of  corruption and the amount of corruption could be manifold bigger.

It is sheer official profligacy that the cost of maintaining the civil service largely under-work, at RM74bil in 2016 for salaries and allowances.

The Pension bill of RM19bil per annum, without any contribution to the GDP by retirees, is also unbearable in the longer term.

In the Parliament opening speech, Sultan Muhammad V also welcomed and supported the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) as envisioned by the Prime Minister and described it as vision that is 30 years forward in making Malaysia a successful country in the world stage.

After the failed target of 2020, it is also possible another worst failure on the way to TN50 unless corruptions and frauds are eliminated promptly.

Joshua Y C Kong  13 March, 2017