Saturday, January 10, 2009

Focus on Trengganu: Vote for virtue, not vultures

TO KUALA TRENGGANU VOTERS


I read with concern the nature of "gift-giving" that is happening in this by-election. Here are my thoughts:

First, a video on the cost of corruption:




Vote virtues, not vultures into power. This should be the guiding principle for Malaysian voters. If Americans cannot stand 12 years of political suffering, why shouldn’t Malaysians withstand 40 years of never-ending plutocracy?

Americans, fed up with their president George W Bush and his corrupt, lying, and warmongering regime, have stood up against him and are ready for a radical change.

The regime has been about Bush family war plans, non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Wolfowitz Doctrine, a trillion dollar war budget, Cheney's running of the White House, defence contracts, destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, criminalisation of the people of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, inhumanity of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, false use of CIA-information to invade Iraq, criminalising Islam and humiliating Muslims, economic-drafting of America's underclass, rising cost of college education, reduced funding for schools, systematic impoverishment of the middle class, wire-tapping, high gas prices, closing both eyes to the Israeli government's brutality towards the Palestinians and, most of all, the worse-than-Vietnam quagmire of the Bush ‘war against terror’.

This explains why Americans are rejoicing over the Democratic touchdown.

Will Bush be impeached for war-time crimes against the people of Iraq, for lying to Americans and the world about the illegitimate war in the absence of weapons of mass destruction? Will Halliburton, of which the Cheney was CEO, be investigated? Will the middle class be resuscitated? Will the troops be recalled? These are the hopes of those who voted for Democrats.

Massive corruption in America and the never-ending war have booted out the Bush regime. Will Malaysians travel a similar path - will corruption, the on-going ‘war’ over the New Economic Policy and unsuccessful war on poverty and racial discrimination be the decisive factors in the 2008 election?

It seems that we are heading towards such a change. We need more transparency as we prepare our citizens for the election.

If we are to find answers to all the abuses in our political system - money politics, cultural corruption, abuse of power in universities and schools, rise of family dynasties in the ruling elite, unsolved mysteries of political murders, imprisonment without trial of those speaking up against injustices, Swiss bank accounts and a spectrum of corrupt practices in all spheres of life, then we must ride the wave of change and master the possibilities of our future.

Complete secrecy

Malaysians must stand up to stop the rot. But where are our Republicans and Democrats? Who are our Republicans and Democrats? This is a difficult question.

We do not have a strong opposition evolving into a good two-party system for checks and balances. I doubt if we will see such an evolution given our political culture and understanding of democracy which is still at pre-puberty stage. Some of our elected officials still argue in parliamentary sessions, using the style of gangsta rappers of South Bronx.

We are still plagued with issues of partisanship in the alternative political system. Our political parties are still religiously race-based. Our political culture has still not matured to a level comfortable enough to have our youth articulate why they will vote in this or that party in the elections.

Our government is making sure that those in public universities do not speak up against this or that form of injustice. And our ruling coalition maintains its power of silencing critics through constant McCarthyism - detaining critics without trial.
Our campaign financing practice is still a blurred picture. We do not know which corporation or government-linked company is financing which political candidate. We do not know how much money is pumped into the coffers of the ruling coalition’s parties. We do not know why many companies are awarded contracts without going through the bidding process.

We do not know what kind of wheeling and dealing goes on behind the political scene. We cannot know this because the major political parties control the mainstream media. This is to ensure that citizens will become what American sociologist Herbert Marcuse would call “one-dimensional beings”.

We do not know to what extent the state apparatuses - courts, police, education system, etc - are under the direct control of politicians. For that matter, we are not sure where to draw the line between the public and the political and the private.

The people do not know how secret our government is. All we know is that corruption and abuse of power is rotting the nation to the core. It is as if there is lawlessness in the way we deal with corruption as illustrated by the refusal of the ruling elite to prosecute those who embezzle public funds big time.

This is the nature of Malaysian rogue republicanism a la the Bush regime. Secrecy is the policy in the name of national security - just like Bush's approach to civil liberties in the name of homeland security.

It is all a question of how much money is needed to install Malaysian democracy. Democracy is for sale - at a guaranteed high price.

Therefore, vote virtue into office, not vultures.

If you want to purify society, listen to your conscience.

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Below is information on corruption, taken from the website of Transparency International (TI):
1. How do you define corruption?

Transparency International (TI) has chosen a clear and focused definition of the term: Corruption is operationally defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. TI further differentiates between "according to rule" corruption and "against the rule" corruption. Facilitation payments, where a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The latter, on the other hand, is a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.

2. What is "transparency"?

"Transparency" can be defined as a principle that allows those affected by administrative decisions, business transactions or charitable work to know not only the basic facts and figures but also the mechanisms and processes. It is the duty of civil servants, managers and trustees to act visibly, predictably and understandably.

3. What does TI do against corruption?

TI has been dedicated to the fight against corruption since its foundation in 1993. The basic principles of TI's anti-corruption struggle have been defined from the start: coalition building, proceeding incrementally, and remaining non-confrontational. What does this mean?TI believes that keeping corruption in check is only feasible if representatives from government, business and civil society work together and agree on a set of standards and procedures they all support. TI also believes that corruption cannot be rooted out in one big sweep. Rather, fighting it is a step-by-step, project-by-project process. Finally, TI's non-confrontational approach is necessary to get all relevant parties to the table.It is TI's goal to define and introduce strategies and mechanisms that make corrupt practices if not impossible, at least unlikely and punishable, both on the national as well as on the international level. Raising public awareness of the problem, stressing that corruption is a problem that can be tackled and that it is not a given fact of life, is the first step in this direction. That is why TI has begun by collecting, analysing and distributing information on the subject. The anti-corruption strategies and tools subsequently developed are described in detail in the Source Book, complemented by an extensive collection of practical examples for their application. The Source Book is available online as well as in print. A collection of civil society experiences and emerging strategies in countering corruption are also available in the Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit, available both on the web and in CD-ROM format. More than 90 national chapters (NCs) are working on strengthening integrity and transparency in their respective countries and regions. The Berlin-based secretariat (TI-S) supports the national chapters in their work and presses international bodies such as the OECD and OAS to draft international anti-corruption legislation. TI then monitors the implementation of the legislation on a country-by-country basis. TI activities around the world and in the Secretariat can be divided into awareness raising, information management, monitoring of the public and private sector, campaigning work for anti-corruption legislation, and project work.

4. What are the costs of corruption?

The cost of corruption is four-fold: political, economic, social, and environmental. On the political front, corruption constitutes a major obstacle to democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic system, offices and institutions lose their legitimacy when they are misused for private advantage. Though this is harmful in the established democracies, it is even more so in newly emerging ones. Accountable political leadership can not develop in a corrupt climate. Economically, corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for the funnelling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high-profile projects, such as dams, power plants, pipelines and refineries, at the expense of less spectacular but more necessary infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of power and water to rural areas. Furthermore, it hinders the development of fair market structures and distorts competition, thereby deterring investment. The effect of corruption on the social fabric of society is the most damaging of all. It undermines people's trust in the political system, in its institutions and its leadership. Frustration and general apathy among a disillusioned public result in a weak civil society. That in turn clears the way for despots as well as democratically elected yet unscrupulous leaders to turn national assets into personal wealth. Demanding and paying bribes become the norm. Those unwilling to comply often emigrate, leaving the country drained of its most able and most honest citizens.Environmental degradation is yet another consequence of corrupt systems. The lack of, or non-enforcement of, environmental regulations and legislation has historically allowed the North to export its polluting industry to the South. At the same time, careless exploitation of natural resources, from timber and minerals to elephants, by both domestic and international agents has led to ravaged natural environments. Environmentally devastating projects are given preference in funding, because they are easy targets for siphoning off public money into private pockets.

5. Can the costs of corruption be quantified?

The short answer is "no". Some experts use regression analyses and other empirical methods in order to try to put a dollar figure on the cost of corruption. It is virtually impossible, though, since payments of bribes are not publicly recorded. No one knows exactly how much money is being "invested" in corrupt officials annually. And bribes do not take only monetary form: favours, services, presents and so on are just as common. At most, one can research the correlation between the level of corruption and, say, democratisation, economic development or environmental degradation.The social costs of corruption are even less quantifiable. No one knows how much the loss of an energetic entrepreneur or an acclaimed scientist costs a country. Moreover, any estimated social costs in dollars would be inadequate to the task of measuring the human tragedy behind resignation, illiteracy, or inadequate medical care. A general scepticism vis-à-vis any attempt at quantifying the costs of corruption is thus warranted.The following example illustrates the dilemma of pressing the issue into facts and figures:
A power plant is being built somewhere in the world, at a cost of US$ 100 million. It could be argued that - were it not for corruption - the cost could have been as low as US$ 80 million. The financial damage to the public would then be US$ 20 million. In practice, quite often projects are planned simply so that those involved can make huge private profits. Assuming that the power plant was superfluous, the financial damage would have to be assessed at US$ 100 million. Yet no major construction project leaves the environment untouched. The results may be: increased pollution, a lowering of land prices, resettlement of local residents, an increased debt burden for the country, etc. This calculation - probably closest to reality - is immensely complex. On a global scale, it seems almost impossible. But even if one were able to calculate the environmental damage, the increase of the debt burden and other factors, how would one measure the erosion of public confidence and the deterioration of a government's legitimacy, which are the direct result of corruption?

6. Where is corruption most prevalent?

At a first, indiscriminate glance, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published annually by TI, seems to confirm the stereotypical notion that corruption is predominantly a problem of the South. While the Scandinavian countries come out on top, most of sub-Saharan Africa ranks at the bottom. It would not only be wrong to conclude, however, that - according to the CPI 2007 - Somalia and Myanmar are the most corrupt country in the world; it would also be counterproductive. The index is not intended to brand any one country, or to pit the North against the South. Rather, it is a tool to raise public awareness of the problem and promote better governance. Corruption is as much a problem of the North as it is of the South. Recent scandals in Germany, France, Japan, the US or the UK attest to that. It is well-established checks and controls that make the difference in proportion. People are as corrupt as the system allows them to be. It is where temptation meets permissiveness that corruption takes root on a wide scale. Such an environment is more likely in the emerging democracies of the South and East. There, administration and political institutions are still weak and pay scales are generally very low, tempting officials to "supplement" their income. In dictatorial systems, meanwhile, administrative and political institutions are nothing but an extension of the usurper's corrupt practices. The North also carries part of the responsibility for the situation in the South due to its role as the bribe-payer. After all, it is largely Northern corporate interests that supply the bribe payments. Until recently, governments of the North not only tolerated these corrupt practices, but they even rewarded them with tax deductibility. Fortunately, the 1999 OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has made the bribing of foreign officials a criminal offence. TI has addressed this aspect with its Bribe Payers Index (BPI), the logical complement to the CPI.In addition to the question of the regional pervasiveness of corruption, the issue of corruption by sector is also often raised. The BPI provides some statistical evidence as to which business sectors are most prone to corruption. According to these results, the problem of corruption is particularly prevalent in public works and construction, followed by the arms and defence industry. The sector with the least detected corruption was agriculture.

7. How does corruption affect people's lives?

Around the globe, corruption impacts people's lives in a multitude of ways. In the worst cases, corruption costs lives. In countless other cases, it costs their freedom, health, or money. Here are a few examples: In May 2000, 950 people were injured and 22 killed, when a fireworks factory in Enschede, the Netherlands, burst into flames. The explosion reached such catastrophic levels because government regulators turned a blind eye to grave security breaches with regard to storing explosives on the factory premises. In return for remaining silent, the officials are said to have received free fireworks for years. Even an illegal enlargement of the factory was legalised by the authorities a posteriori. The local government official in charge of monitoring fireworks factories in the area admitted to not knowing the specific regulations on the storage of explosives. Though considered an expert, he hadn't read the relevant literature, nor had he taken part in any training seminars. He only followed the instructions of his superiors, one of whom was arrested on corruption charges two years ago. A Swiss activist for the rights of the Penan, a nomadic people in the Malaysian rainforest, has been missing since May 2000, after he successfully drew international attention to the problem of the unscrupulous logging of Borneo's woods. Turning rainforest into palm plantations, the logging companies and government officials destroy the habitat of the indigenous rainforest nomads. In addition to threatening the lives of the Penan and those who fight for them, the excessive logging in Borneo contributes to the worldwide problem of deforestation, affecting the earth's climate. The corrupt co-operation between loggers and government also hurts the Malaysian people on the whole, as the money made by logging companies does not flow back into Malaysia's economy. A 1993 study showed that "log exports to Japan were under-declared by as much as 40 percent, thereby reducing the amount of export tax paid to the national treasury". (Sizer, Nigel: Practical Measures for Promoting Integrity and Curbing Corruption in the Forest Sector: A Contribution to the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Intstitute, 1997.) Other examples of the impact of corruption abound: take the residents of shanty towns, who need to pay off city officials so that the little bit of living space they have built does not get torn down; or citizens harassed by police in their daily activities, having to pay left and right only to go about their business. Some bureaucracies only work if they are enticed by additional "rewards". In any case, grand and petty corruption is making life more difficult or outright threatens the lives of many people all over the world.

8. What kind of environment does corruption need to thrive in?

As indicated above, corruption thrives where temptation coexists with permissiveness. Where institutional checks on power are missing, where decision making remains obscure, where civil society is thin on the ground, where great inequalities in the distribution of wealth condemn people to live in poverty, that is where corrupt practices flourish. It cannot be stressed enough that corruption is alive and well even where political, economic, legal and social institutions are well entrenched.

For more details on specific conditions, please refer to our Source Book.

9.Can corruption be seen as normal or traditional in some societies?

Critics argue that the fight against corruption is just another case of the West trying to impose its views and values on the South. Some go on to say that gift giving and taking in the public realm is a normal tradition in many non-Western cultures.The debate over cultural relativism and neo-colonialism is a contested one. Where concepts like public procurement procedures are unknown concepts, bribing public officials to secure public works contracts does not exist. Norms and values are context-bound and vary across cultures. Gift-giving is part of negotiating and relationship building in some parts of the world. But cultural relativism ends where the Swiss bank account enters the scene. It is a matter of degree: there are limits in all cultures beyond which an action becomes corrupt and unacceptable. When Olusegun Obasanjo, now President of Nigeria, criticised the corrupt practices of the dictatorial regime of Sani Abach, he was was imprisoned. He once commented that, in African tradition, "a gift is made in the open for all to see, never in secret. Where a gift is excessive, it becomes an embarrassment, and is returned." (Olusegun Obasanjo, "Positive Tradition Perverted by Corruption", Financial Times, 14 October 1994) It is precisely in order to account for cultural differences that TI has developed its national chapter system. People anchored in their societies have the best sense of what is customary, and what is a violation of the norm. Clearly the abuse of power for personal gain, the siphoning off of public or common resources into private pockets is unacceptable in all cultures and societies.

10. Are democracy and corruption (ir-)reconcilable?

In a modern democracy, the power of governing bodies is inherent in the political mandate given by the people. Power is entrusted and it is supposed to be used for the benefit of society at large, and not for the personal benefit of the individual that holds it. Thus corruption - misusing publicly entrusted power for private gain - is inherently contradictory and irreconcilable with democracy. That does not mean, unfortunately, that corruption cannot be found in democratic systems. Temptation remains a challenge anywhere. That is why it is all the more important to put in place control mechanisms and establish systemic hurdles to prevent people from abusing their power, as TI is seeking to do. Such mechanisms are more easily drawn up and introduced in established democratic systems, however, than in newly democratic or non-democratic ones.













2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 'Old Boys' have helped to keep this corrupted and evil UMNO-Bn regime in power for the good 40 years. Time is changing the political landscape. The younger generation are not so easily deceived by these political vultures.
Like a car, it has exhausted its life span and nothing can save it. We simply need to replace this unusable vehicle...only fit for the museum.

Tamerlane said...

Even with the check and balances in the US, it is also "corrupt". Rasuah is called political contributions. Tukang rasuah is the lobby group. US is nolonger neutral and pro the interests of certain parties in pursuit of their agendas. Americans are no longer in pursuit of their own happiness but brainwashed to support others.Freedom to invade, kill maim etc etc. Thats corruption la bro.

I read in CNN today that Obama visited the memorial of his hero Lincoln. Only time will tell us if obama will measure up to the towering Lincoln, not only physically but in being just and standing up to evil. Lincoln glued the breaking of america over slavery and paid with his life. Is obama going to give up his to stand up against the zionists and the christian evangelists and their warmongering tactics?As it is, the world is not shackled by communism or socialism or facism or slavery but the one sided agression and bullying behaviour of a single superpower. Where is the freedom? Only preach but never practice. Preach democracy but its the only one vetoing any resolutions, encourage democracy but support the persecution of a democratically elected goverment that isnt incahoots with itself.US dah jadi mcm raja filem LOTR yang kena bomoh spell lam castle tu yang dono whats goin on but under the thumb of the magician until gandalf came.Dok melamun garubola

As jefefrson said "The tree of liberty needs to be refreshed by the blood of patriots and tyrants from time to time". The world wants to climb that tree of liberty but whose blood should be shed to refresh it? The tyrant or the oppressed?


I think if Obama doesnt have the balls to tacke this issue then he should not visit Lincoln memorial, just visit the grave of George Custer would be sufficient.

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