I refer to the Malaysiakini report PM: Isa's offence a technical matter .
Corruption by any name smells just as bad. With due apology to the Bard, I don’t think a majority of decent Malaysians would agree with our honorable prime minister’s statement that, Isa Samad’s offence was just a ‘technical matter’.
Corruption, unlike the old days when it only involved ‘kopi money’ for motorists to escape traffic offences, has evolved with time. Together with abuse of power and money politics, they have all stunted our growth for the past three decades.
A failure to stop this growing cancer might lead us into economic decay and eventually into the category of Third World countries where corruption and abuse of power are uncontrollable.
Top politicians in other matured and civilised countries have been known to resign for lesser offences not like the former finance minister of Japan who was allege to have been drunk while attending a world forum.
It is also not uncommon to hear about ministers in Western countries who resign from office because they have lied to the public or were caught in a sex scandals.
The educated public expects those leading the country’s to have a high morals benchmark and be steadfast characters that do not use their high office for personal gain.
But such individuals who work for the nation rather than for self-interest have all but disappeared and have been replaced with the corrupt and greedy who think that public funds are for them to plunder as they please.
Isa Samad represents all that is ill in Umno. The former menteri besar is not the only person who was caught red-handed for being involved in money politics. Other bigwigs are also involved but somehow manage to hide their misdeeds and escape punishment.
One can still recall the case of a former MB who was caught red-handed for money laundering in Australia after which he was forced to resign from his MB’s post. But still, he was later made a federal minister for a short stint before he lost his bid to become a vice -president in the Umno party polls.
Another MB also had to resign also due to his alleged involvement in a sex scandal with an underaged girl.
The list of abuse by public officials is too long to be put in writing. But suffice to say that these top politicians and their cronies escape prisons terms due to their political connections while other ordinary mortals pay for their sins.
Transparency International has claimed that nearly RM10 billions of public funds have been lost due to corruptions in this country. Imaging how much the poor and downtrodden can be helped out of their cycle of poverty if such funds were used to build low-cost houses and other amenities for them.
Isa Samad, the tainted candidate in the upcoming by-election in Bagan Pinang will probably win against his PAS rival due to his grassroots support in that area. The biggest losers, however, will be those decent people who still thinks that the oldest party in the country can change for the better and reform themselves to win back lost support from the citizens of the country.
Other Asians countries like Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea have put their former top leaders in jail for their abuse of power and corrupt practices. These parties ruling their countries have won public support because their present leaderships has ‘walked the talked’.
Unlike here where it is ‘lain cakap, lain bikini’. I wonder how long the voters are going to play along with our weak leaders’ charades in fooling us all the time?
