Recently, an officer from the MACC announced that MACC has, from January to April this year, successfully investigated and prosecuted 235 cases. The statistics are broken down as follows:-
| CATEGORY | JAN | FEB | MAC | APR | TOTAL |
| CIVIL SERVANTS | 45 | 7 | 28 | 33 | 113 |
| POLITICIANS | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| PUBLIC | 28 | 17 | 27 | 48 | 120 |
| TOTAL | 74 | 25 | 55 | 81 | 235 |
In 2009, 500 cases were investigated and prosecuted.
Amount of money that exchanged hands or reported as offered:-
RM3 to RM35,000.
Whilst I applaud the successes MACC has had this year and last, I can’t help but be disappointed with the announcement. To be frank and direct about it, I had expected more, much more from MACC.
The Government had upgraded MACC from just an Agency (Anti-Corruption Agency) to a Commission with full investigative powers and independent authority. The Government had also allocated millions of Ringgit in order to bolster up MACC’s structure and operations to ensure its effectiveness.
I also feel the Government should give priority to MACC if it needs more funds or anything else in order to achieve the Government’s objective to eradicate corruption.
However, MACC must focus or refocus in this case. The current cases prosecuted as announced are what we all call as ‘ikan bilis’ cases. Traffic summonses? Illiegal immigrants? RM3? RM35,000?
I spoke of my disappointment to a friend of mine who knows a bit more about MACC and its nature of work. I wondered why MACC has not successfully investigated the high profile cases and what had happened to other cases involving bigger sums of money.
After listening to his answers, I can accept, albeit reluctantly, the reasons for the limited success MACC has had all these while.
It seems that MACC is still understaffed. For example, due to budget constraints for 2010, they only got about 50% of what they requested for to purchase new equipment and hire new and more professionally accredited investigating officers. Corruption now is sophisticated that accountants, auditors and normal officers alone would not be able to investigate thoroughly and successfully. SPRM now needs qualified engineers, psychologists, business managers and so on to fully understand the workings and intricacies within the operational aspects of a business unit. It is no more a matter of scratching the surface and being able to find clues and evidence.
Witnesses also turn hostile and are not willing to cooperate during trials and so on. Because of the nature of investigations, suspects are allowed to roam free until prosecution. This may allow the suspect to do a lot of things including destroying evidence, intimidating the main witness and so on. In the certain cases, when the hostile witness is allowed to go home the person will destroy any evidence.
I am happy that tackling corruption is one of the Government’s NKRA. That shows the seriousness and commitment by the Government to address and eradicate corruption. Money must be spent , and I am confident Government will allocate as much as possible to MACC, to better equip and train the officers. MACC must also start hiring professionals from various backgrounds to bolster up its force. I was happy to note that MACC had conducted tests and interviews to appoint Chinese investigators and must also do for other races and languages.
The Anti-Corruption academy must also start full training, not only to its officers but also to civil servants and the public to rope them in, not as MACC officers but to be the eyes and ears for MACC.
I was happy to note my friend assured me that the board of advisors and the top officers are passionate and committed to their cause of fighting corruption.
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7 comments:
Salam,
Congrats Mal, back in action!!!
Dr Mahathir is the worst thing that has happened to this country. He continues to spew venom. Why? All he cares about is himself, his family, his relatives, his friends and his cronies.
It doesn't require a PhD to analyze the reasons why many malays are still poor for the new economy in spite of the NEP and all we hear - the true reason for the failure of the malays are MAHATHIR MAHATHIR MAHATHIR……….and nothing else.
Mahathir biggest achievements are not the white elephant KLIA, the robber highways, the meaningless twin towers, ghost town Putrajaya, failed MSC, sweat shop factories run with foreign labour, etc.
His true achievements are the destruction of good governance, law and order, quality education, religious brotherhood, peace and harmony.
· Canada is a multi racial country like Malaysia.
· Canada is a relatively young country like Malaysia.
· Canada is a very progressive country.
· Canada is one of the G8 countries.
· Canada is one of the highest per capital income in the world now.
· Canada is one of the most developed countries in the world now.
· Canada allows both English and French as its official languages.
· Canada builds many 100% government subsidized French primary and secondary schools and French medium universities.
· Canada has very liberal policy in education and language.
· Ratio of English speaking citizens vs. French speaking citizens is almost similar to malays and Chinese in Malaysia.
What is Malaysia now? Discrimination, discrimination and more discrimination!
The malays do not exist as a unique tribe but are the result of centuries of mix amongst various ethnic groups - migrants from Yunnan, Polynesia, Java, Sumatra, Turkey, Arabia, India, Siam, Cambodia, Laos.
Once they began to populate the Malayan Peninsula - (which wasn't named for the malay race but derives from the Tamil word for "mountain" - malai) they figured it would be advantageous to claim ownership of the land by dubbing it Tanah Melayu.
It was mostly a political part of various pirate bloodlines to create their own Promised Land.
The Chinese came to Malaysia more than 1000 years ago, while the Indians came here almost 1030 years ago. Kota Gelanggi and Lembah Bujang are proof of these early settlements.
Well, UMNO managed to achieve one thing. The BTN type morons, have been overwhelmingly successful in brainwashing todays 25 million citizens. Who says that the peninsular was always called Tanah Melayu? This is a recent British term!
Tanah Melayu was never the name until the British came and colonized the peninsular.
Malai means hill in Tamil; as to describe the Titiwangsa range on the said peninsular since the 2nd century by the Gujerati traders who set up their formidable Hindu empire at Lembah Bujang.
For Royal Professor Ungku Aziz to say that there was no social contract between the founding fathers of our nation, this has put a nail in the coffin on those ultra-malays who still see Ketuanan Melayu as a cornerstone for race relationships in this country.
While other matured and well-developed nations have put to rest the 'master and slave' relationship among the various races, it baffles the mind of thinking people why should such policy still remain relevant in this 21st century here in Malaysia. We might call our British colonial masters 'Sir' or 'Tuan' in the early days but after half-a-century of independence, don't you think that such thinking is out of date?
Malay rights have been ensconced in the federal constitution and cannot be taken away unless by a two-thirds majority in parliament subject to the malay rulers approval. No one doubts that in the early days, the bumis especially the malays, needed affirmative actions to take them out of their cycle of poverty to be on par with other races, especially the Chinese.
But the NEP has outlived it purpose and it should be replaced with a new policy which will eradicate poverty regardless of creed and race.
The playing field should be more even and let the best among the best compete among themselves in order for our nation to progress in the future. Why should rich malays with their 'right political connections' obtain a big slice of the economic cake while the poor people are denied such opportunities to get them out of their cycle of poverty?
To be a respected race, the malays must discard the notion that the government will always have to provide them with opportunities in studies and business as if it was their birth right. The malays should be able to compete with the other races on an equal footing and work hard to improve their lot rather than expecting handouts from the government.
Ungku Aziz, a towering malay whose intellectual thinking is way ahead of his time, has opened a Pandora Box's with his outright statement that there is no written 'social contract' among the various races prior to independence. Umno politicians will now cry foul about his daring statement as they will always use the Ketuanan Melayu bogey to win the hearts and minds of the malays to support their cause.
But the malays cannot be in a denial mode anymore. We must accept the fact that in the brave new world that we live in where people and capital move to places where no restrictions are imposed, the old way of doing business by having quota systems will drive capital away from our country and the people will suffer in the end if business opportunities pass our shores.
The malays should look at their Singapore brethren who are no less the worse although unlike their Malaysian cousins, they does not have any NEP policy to get a leg up in society. There is no short cut for success unless you work hard for it.
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