It speaks volumes that I was invited to the launching of the National Integrity Plan (NIP) by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi three years ago but I was not invited to the third anniversary commemoration of the NIP and the Integrity Institute of Malaysia (ITM) led by Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday.
I take this as a realization and admission by the government and organizers of the third anniversary commemoration of the NIP that whatever their public posturing and speechifying, corruption has gotten worse in the past three years and the NIP has become quite a joke.
Even former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who is not famous for leading a government of integrity, could elicit national and international approval when he said corruption under Abdullah in the past three years is worse than during his 22-year administration.
As far back as May 2005, Mahathir had warned that “corruption might be getting to a point of no return”, that it had become a culture in Malaysia with corruption almost at the “above the table” level and more and more people no longer trying to hide the fact that they were corrupt.
Why is Malaysia becoming even more corrupt than before when there was no National Integrity Plan, as testified by Malaysia’s seven-point drop in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rankings from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 44 in 2006, and with all signs of heading further south in the 2007 ranking on the occasion of our 50th Merdeka anniversary?
What is the use of having a National Integrity Plan when there is even no integrity to admit that the NIP is a flop with regard to its most outstanding five-year objective to improve Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking to at least 30th position by 2008 — that we are going backward instead of forward in the battle against corruption?
I picked up on a comment on my blog and asked in Parliament yesterday whether BN has not become “Bribery Nasional” from the blatant money politics and electoral corruption in Ijok by-election and most recently the Machap by-election?
The full transformation of BN into “Bribery Nasional” in Machap and Ijok by-elections has made a total mockery of the third anniversary commemoration of the National Integrity Plan and the Integrity Institute of Malaysia — and I can understand why I did not receive any invitation to it.
As I told Parliament yesterday that I demurred with the Bernama report on Najib’s speech which headlined: “Fighting Corruption Is A National Mission, Says DPM”. A more appropriate headline would have been: “Spreading Corruption is A National Mission”.
Yesterday, I asked why is the Election Commission Chairman keeping totally silent about the worst case of money politics and electoral corruption in 50 years of elections in the Ijok by-election?
Today, we must ask why the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) is mute and completely helpless about the worst case of money politics and electoral corruption in half-a-century of nationhood, when it would have enough material and work to occupy an army of ACA officers for the next few years to burn midnight oil to initiate investigations, launch arrests and conduct prosecutions for the multitude of the corrupt electoral practices in Ijok as well as Machap.
But horror of horrors, if the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo is right, the ACA had been roped into the “Bribery Nasional” chicanery in Ijok to give legitimacy to the multitude of corrupt electoral practices by both national and state BN leaders.
We must also ask the Integrity Institute of Malaysia why it is keeping totally dumb about the cornucopia of corrupt electoral practices in Ijok and Machap by-elections?
Najib was really replying to my criticisms in Parliament when he said in his keynote address yesterday that “contrary to what some had believed, fighting corruption and improving national integrity had always been a serious matter not just for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but the government as well”.
Najib said: “Let me remind everyone that this is not just the agenda of the Prime Minister. This is a part and parcel of the national mission and the government is firm behind the Prime Minister on this”
Why didn’t Najib come to Parliament even once in the past three years to make such a declaration? The answer is very simple — he would have no credibility whatsoever, especially with him spearheading the transformation of BN as “Bribery Nasional” in the Ijok and Machap by-elections!