The Long Tradition of Corruption Inc. Malaysia

• 3 March 2016
• 3 comments

Najib Razak’s UMNO-led coalition government in Malaysia is the longest-serving regularly elected government in the world, having run the country since independence in the late 1950s. However, its legitimacy has long been in question, with electoral manipulation by UMNO certainly stacking the odds in their favour in recent times.

Although Malaysia’s then Minister for Youth and Sport Khairy Jamaluddin contended in a letter to the Economist that “there has to date not been one shred of evidence to substantiate any claims of electoral fraud or irregularity” in Barisan Nasional’s narrow win in May 2013, where there is smoke there is fire. One blatant example was that of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, importing Muslim immigrants from the southern Philippines into the state of Sabah. They were secretly issued Malaysian citizenship in order to fabricate a Malay Muslim vote base for Barisan Nasional in that precariously balanced state.

Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Centre, an independent polling organisation, has been quoted in the New York Times as saying that “although the evidence that had been presented by the opposition was very selective, there were questions about illegality related to today’s (May 2013) vote”. Chartered flights traced to Prime Minister Najib Razak may have transferred non-Malaysian labourers working in Sabah and Sarawak into key voting areas in west Malaysia. Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, claims to have video evidence of vote-buying and has received complaints ranging from improper electoral rolls to government abuse of state-run media. The Election Commission has no power to investigate electoral fraud, is under the authority of police and the anti-corruption agency, and is widely viewed as lacking independence.

Two and a half years later, Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali’s decision to close investigations into the US$680 million gifted by the Saudi Royal family to the private coffers of Prime Minister Najib Razak is likely a cynical ploy to avoid Najib’s indictment and possible impeachment on mammoth corruption charges. More scandalously, $10 million has been siphoned from the Finance Ministry affiliated company SRC into Najib’s accounts. SRC received $930 million loan from the government fund that manages the retirement savings of civil servants, a decision approved by Mr. Najib’s cabinet. In effect, Najib stands accused of circuituosly stealing from his own employees. Furthermore, Mr. Najib’s government have aggressively suppressed leaks that prompted the now closed investigation. Last year, the police raided the offices of the anticorruption commission, the license of a crusading news organisation was suspended and Mr. Najib purged his deputy prime minister, who had been pressing for further investigations.

A month ago, the son of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned as leader of Kedah state. Mukhriz Mahathir contends he was ousted because he dared criticise the Najib financial scandal. Support for Najib’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has eroded in the last two general elections. It won in 2013, but lost the popular vote for the first time to an opposition alliance. Najib has been facing deep unhappiness over his leadership, with large street rallies in August last year calling for his resignation after documents leaked in July suggested hundreds of millions were directed into his private bank accounts from entities linked to indebted state investment fund 1MDB. Najib’s desperate days in power are numbered if recent history is any guide.

This week, Mohathir Mohammad resigned from UMNO in protest against the gross corruption that has smeared and infected Nazib Razak’s government. Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister is himself smeared by the violent vilification and victimisation of Anwar Ibrahim in 2008. Although this is reminiscent of the pot calling the kettle black, Mahathir’s Machievellian manipulation are at least politically motivated rather than to service monetary greed. Hundreds of millions of dollars are stratospherically many orders of magnitude more than bolstering a small scale retirement fund.

Its time to assess the gradual inculcation of favouritism that gestates the mammoth corruption that Nazib Razak stands accused of. The damaging affirmative policies that have allowed race-based mediocrity to flourish and become entrenched since the 1970’s. The islamisation of Malaysia imposes further dominance of the “bumiputra” (sons of the soil) over non-Malays. It tightens the tentacles of the Malay majority’s already privileged access to systematic advantages in commerce, education, economic and political life since the inception of the National Economic Plan.

My family’s life story is inscribed with the toil of decades-long discrimination under of guise of affirmative action that aimed to enhance the realisation of Malay aspirations. I was admitted to a prestigious primary school in Sarawak after having to score much better on my entrance examination. On appeal, my place was withdrawn to accommodate a less qualified Malay student. My father failed to advance his teaching career despite many years of praised service. As Colombo Scholar to Victoria University in Wellington, he was eminently qualified to progress up the career ladder at Sarawak Teacher’s Training College. Malay colleagues leapfrogged him despite their inexperience.

My family immigrated to Australia to find opportunity predicated on ability and prior achievement rather than favouring a particular race or religion. The legitimisation of undue reward is unjust, blunts motivation, exacerbates complacency and fuels the fire of cross-cultural and religious conflict. The seeds of corruption and rising religious intolerance in Malaysia were sown long ago, with roots grown as long and deep as an incurable cancer.