Off the Cuff - Thou shall not give or receive bribes

AS a member of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's Consultation and Prevention Panel until last year, I'm often asked what does the panel do and more provocatively, how effective is it?

The original members of this independent panel including myself have ended our third and final two-year term and it's timely to answer these questions and reflect on the last six years that it has been in existence.

Let me say at the outset that the mandate given to our panel, one of five such independent bodies that "police" the work of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), is basically to reduce the "room and opportunities" for corrupt practice to thrive. In other words, as far as humanly possible, we strive to make it more difficult for corruption to exist in a business-as-usual manner.

I have used the word "reduce" instead of a stronger one like "eliminate" for obvious reasons – corruption can only be mitigated or reduced and not eliminated, at least not in the foreseeable future.

Based on reports or allegations of corrupt practice received by the MACC, we members go about identifying for example, work processes and rules in the public sector that like I mentioned earlier, give more than ample room and opportunities for the giving and taking of bribes to take place.

We have had engagements with the top brass of the police, the Customs Department, Road Transport Department, Kuala Lumpur City Hall, and other "front-line" government agencies, the construction industry people, as well as corporate entities, to name a few.

It's most encouraging to note that over the years, the highly bureaucratic civil service has considerably improved its delivery system. Its previously notorious delays and bottlenecks had led some members of the public to offer bribes to get things done faster.

What comes to mind is the super efficiency of the Immigration Department in processing passport applications or renewals. What used to take days or weeks is now done in one or two hours.

The Customs Department, being one of the most "front-line" of government agencies, is the source of many allegations received by the MACC. For people like forwarding agents and the like who are dealing daily with Customs officers, time is of the essence because delays cost money.

When abuse of power takes place it leads to bribes changing hands and the MACC had, on several occasions, in the recent past carried out blitzes against the department's officers resulting in many arrests.

In one such operation three years ago, even gold bars and large amounts of cash were found stashed in the homes of some of these officers which goes to show the extent of this illicit activity.

The panel members once called in the department's top-most officers for discussions and we were told that one of the reasons for such a situation was the archaic work process. The department had till then not adopted an online system for payments.

When we asked why this was not rectified, we were shocked to learn that the department's request for a fully computerised system was not approved by the relevant government agency.

This was simply a case of this agency being penny-wise, pound-foolish because it was being "stingy" in the wrong place – the Customs Department is the second highest collector of government revenue after the Inland Revenue Board.

It really didn't cost much to modernise the payment system compared to the tens of billions that this department earns for the nation and with the panel's insistence, the system is being put in place so that payments are only made online without any "under the counter" transactions.

We have also been able to do away with a quota system for the issuance of seasonal trading permits that's been practised by another huge government agency where such a quota was traditionally allocated to the minister in charge of this agency.

Some years ago, we called up the minister before the panel and he explained the rationale for the "political quota". But we demanded that the quota be scrapped so that the agency could allocate the permits to deserving members of the public.

Initially, he seemed reluctant to do so but when panel members stood firm, he relented.

There's absolutely so much more that needs to be done for the MACC to be able to at least break the backbone of the "infrastructure" that's been built up over decades for corrupt practice to take root.

A long way to go but with the MACC upping its ante and trying its level best to upgrade its capacity and capability to fight this cancerous scourge, we can only be positive that things will get better, instead of getting worse.

What is crucial is that the fight against corruption is not MACC's alone to battle.

What also needs to be done and seen to be done is to germinate a genuine phobia for committing corruption, be it petty or big-time, across all strata of society.
Or as we call it in anti-corruption jargon, irrespective of whether it's "ikan bilis or ikan jerung" (anchovies or sharks).

Unfortunately, this phobia is still not there despite action being taken in so many corruption cases involving so many individuals who had even paid the ultimate price – serving jail time – for their crime.

We certainly need more anti-corruption champions.

We need more NGOs and citizens' groups to fight this menace for the survival of our nation. Malaysia had scored a resounding success in the fight against Communist insurgents as well as other threats like extremist religious groups throughout our history and the same resources and commitment must be shown in our anti-corruption drive.

Such groups exist and are thriving in Indonesia which enabled the MACC's counterpart, Komisi Pembenterasan Korupsi (KPK), to become a much respected and feared entity.

Many countries have become failed states and gone down as basket cases or consigned to the dustbin of history primarily because of their failure to stamp out corruption.

The social media being a powerful tool, could really help out in this endeavour.

So, too, our religious preachers.

It's rare for our ustaz or Muslim preachers as well as preachers of other religions to touch on this issue in their sermons on the evils and sins that corruption entails and I think this is one platform that needs to be maximised.

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1658983