Plundering, Profiteering, Bribery and Corruption

Laws that were enacted to proscribe bribery and corruption have a long and glorious history.

A Roman senator could be dismissed from office for the "moral corruption" of bribery, and under the Magna Carta of 1215 the King's officials were prohibited from taking commodities without paying for them, this was an attempt to eradicate corruption.

The payment of bribes to public officials is illegal under a number of international laws, and under the domestic laws of Malaysia and many other countries around the world.

Plundering of citizens and taxpayers’ money for the benefit of the politically powerful, their cronies and many civil servants, is a common phenomenon in many countries, but seems to have reached endemic mega-status in Malaysia.

According to publicly available information, many, if not all mega projects, it appears, are in some way or another connected to the various Barisan National coalition political parties, personalities and their cronies. They may, in addition (as it seems to be the de facto standard operation procedure in Malaysia), be riddled, from top to bottom, with bribery and corruption.

There are many examples of dubious past projects, the 4.6 billion Ringgit Port Klang Free Zone fiasco, (PKFZ) being only one example.

(Two examples of up and coming mega projects are the gargantuan snake like Penang Second Bridge, and the infamous Penang Global City Centre.

There are numerous other examples of mega projects which are located throughout the country, there is also a new phenomena, the quite recently announced gargantuan “Development Corridors and / or Regions, located throughout Malaysia, as follows:-

Peninsular Malaysia.

• In the North, the ambitious RM177 billion Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) multi billion Ringgit development plan.

• In the East, the ambitious East Coast Economic Region (ECER)

• In the South the massive Iskandar Development Region (IDR) ,

and across the South China Sea on the island of Borneo, in East Malaysia.

• In the state of Sabah, the newly proposed mega billion Ringgit Sabah Development Corridor.

• In the state of Sarawak, the proposed mother of all projects, the multi billion Ringgit, Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) in the central region, which will need a whopping RM334bil in capital investment to be fully developed.

Without strict controls, accountability, openness and full transparency; mismanagement, skulduggery, underhandedness, as well as bribery and corruption will continue to flourish and Malaysia will continue to suffer financially and will never truly progress.

Uncompleted projects, substandard construction, unmet specifications, slipshod work and poor quality outfitting and supplies will continue to be the accepted norm.

Just look around, you will see cracking buildings, subsiding highways, land slips,potholes in newly resurfaced roads, out of order facilities in most public buildings and facilities, unlit street light and traffic lights, dilapidated government offices and staff accommodation and so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

Even in the national show city of Putrajaya, which is the political and administrative hub of Malaysia, where most the Ministries and Headquarters of Government Agencies are located, the magnificent architectural masterpieces are in some case a mere fancy façade; closer inspection will reveal that they too have suffered from bad workmanship, specifications which were not met, sub-standard materials and lack of care and attention to detail. To make matters even worse, maintenance is, as is common throughout Malaysia, falls far below the standard that is required.

Any visitors to Putrajaya must be aware of misleading road signs, dead ends, roads to nowhere, and a dearth of people to ask direction from. Pedestrians must be especially careful, as pedestrian crossings are few and far between, and even those which are installed are unsafe or virtually unusable.

Cyberjaya, located nearby, and which is the axis of the multi-media super corridor suffers in a similar way.

How to overcome the ruinous problems outlined above?

Not too difficult a job, but it would need corruption free and very strong, leadership, persistence, determination, dedication, strict enforcement, zero tolerance for wrong doing, corruption and cronyism, and severe punitive action against the guilty, no matter who they are, who they know, or how much money they have.

Only when bribery and corruption are eradicated will Malaysia and her peolple, truly progress, develop and eventually reach the status of a fully developed nation.

Fearlessly Forward without Fear or Favour, would be perhaps be a good motto for true progress.

Kampai!