///Last year on August 5th the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was quoted as saying that open tender would be implemented for government procurements/// – Dr. Chen Man Hin.

No, Najib did not quite exactly say this or give a carte blanche to open tenders.

Though he used the word “all”, he also in next breath qualified it by carves out of exceptions.
[NST Online 2009/03/10 under caption “ Najib unveils RM60b stimulus package” reported his words as “All government procurements will be made through open tenders or restricted tenders except for specific cases.”

In other words against the so-called general rule of “all government procurements will be made through open tenders” there are exceptions of “restricted tender cases” of a few restricted parties invited to bid and also outright exceptions of a appointed beneficiary of a govt contract on “negotiated” basis.

There are no transparent and rational criteria clarified to distinguish the general rule from the exceptions. (What is there to stop, in terms of implementation, for the exceptions to become, by sheer number of incidences, the general in no time, the general to become exceptions???) But even discounting number of incidences, what counts is the value of the contract, the greater the value the greater the need for open tender. Here they come out with excuses, like for example the mega defence procurement contracts where Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said that the purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines, was not made through an open tender as doing so would expose the country’s defence system to all and sundry. He even said that similar approach was also taken by countries like India, Chile and Brazil. Of course there could be other exceptions : how could we give the contract based on the best bid from a foreigner or a non Malay and not a bumiputra company consistent with NEP? When excuses run out, fiction is created when as, in Matrade Expo case, NAZA’s track record is touted by Mustapha as the “developer” of Taman Tun Dr Ismail instead of TDDI!

Open tender is but a pipe dream given lip service only because at the heart of our political culture is feudal system of patronage where favours by way of lucrative govt contracts and licences are given (all under the pretext of NEP) in exchange for political loyalty and financial support/political fund raising. It is the raison de etre of entering politics – to benefit from patronage and largesse from the gravy train. Strike at this by suggesting open tender, one strikes at all pillars holding up the political system!

This means even if a PM were really serious to implement open tender he would be booted out and ousted by his party warlords in no time. These warlords – delegates and MPs- continually lobby, badger, cajole (backed by veiled threat of withdrawing support) government ministers and officials for contracts and licences and then get their letter of “sokongan” (support) to in turn pressure civil servants and their DGIs to so award. The power of these warlords is seen in Bagan Pinang by election – if party leadership did not nominate Tan Sri Isa as BN candidate, they would boycott/withdraw support ensuring an Opposition victory. The party leadership balked and deferred to that pressure which proved a “wise” decision (to BN) to ensure victory.

We know how negotiated contracts as opposed to open tender are a feudal norm underpinning political corruption in this country but this cannot be addressed by a mere top leader wishing to continue in power as ‘numero ono’ unless his power base is dependent not on party delegates, warlords and officials but directly on the people/rakyat themselves wishing for transparency, accountability and open tenders. For that the PM’s position like that of the US president must be directly voted upon by the general electorate.