By Tunku Abdul Aziz

Malaysia is blessed in that there is a law for every situation; you name it and we have it all.

Tragically, the mountains of statutes have done nothing more than to earn for us an international reputation of being an overregulated and an underenforced country, with the usual, predictable consequences.

In short, we have already become a first rate country run, generally speaking, by a third rate one race-dominated public service and who have, by their general attitude to their work, made it impossible for Malaysia to be taken seriously.

We have, at the same time become a reactive, finger-pointing society whenever the inevitable happens. Both on a personal as well as at institutional level, we have developed a propensity for “blame thy neighbour” into a fine art form.

The tragedy is that we Malays have made a virtue of “if it be the will of God” while forgetting, somewhat disingenuously, that God, in His infinite wisdom, “helps those who help themselves”.

It is not unlike some Malays practising polygamy and claiming their rights under Islam while ignoring studiously the very strict injunctions and responsibility that their religion demands of such an undertaking.

I am also reminded of Malays enriching themselves by corrupt means and claiming that it is “redzeki yang diberi oleh Tuhan” or loosely translated “God’s bountiful blessings” and who are they, they claim, or we, for that matter, to question His wisdom and beneficence?

What chance do we ordinary corruption-despising mortals have against those who believe, quite sincerely, that God is really on their side?

Yielding to what we want to believe to be “the inevitable” comes easily to us Malays because it takes responsibility out of our hands, and as a people, we are predisposed to shift responsibility and apportion blame to others.

We find great emotional and psychological comfort that when something goes wrong; we can attribute it all to an act of God, or God’s will.

We are, from birth, intoned to accept the inevitable even though we, through our criminal negligence, inefficiency or plain corrupt practice, allow what is largely preventable.

It is a fact that the vast majority of corruption cases involve Malays in government service and those who contribute to the corruption statistics are generally drawn from the lower ranks of the public service, the underpaid foot soldiers, and never the top dogs.

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission, our custodian of all things good and wholesome in public behaviour may want, when they are tired of harassing the Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen, to tell the world why Federal ministers have generally been left in peace to feather their own nests? And those reports made by the public against them?

To be fair to my own people, we Malays are not congenitally morally or ethically deficient. It would be wrong to suggest that we invented corruption.

The blame must be placed squarely on the improper implementation of the New Economic Policy, which has proven to be a real curse to the poor ordinary Malays.

They find themselves suddenly wielding power over their fellow citizens, and that puts an enormous temptation in their way.

Malays like others with power to abuse as they like can resist most things, but not temptation.

They also know that they operate in a corruption-friendly environment and can get away, literally, with murder.

In the 52 years under the same government, no powerful minister or top bureaucrat for that matter, however corrupt, has ever been put behind bars. This led Tun Dr Mahathir, when he was prime minister, to suggest somewhat cynically as is his trademark that Malaysian ministers were clean.

Using his logic, we must have the cleanest government in the world. We believe him at our peril. The next TI Corruption Perceptions Index will be an interesting barometer of the degree of corruption of Najib and his merry band.

Corruption is not just about money changing hands. Using a government helicopter for party work is abuse of power. That, in plain language, is bending the rules.

Don’t say you have not been warned. – mysinchew.com