COMMENT | For the majority of the last fifty years, Malaysian politicians have appeared oblivious to a basic understanding of public service. Nor have they embraced a vitally important societal value: that entering politics is not about making money, but is about serving the country and its people. 

This is the important message Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is now sending loud and clear with a few bold statements and actions. It is about time too, if Malaysia is to have any chance of getting out of its current rut and fulfilling its undoubted potential.

In his maiden press conference as prime minister, he highlighted three focus areas of his administration: cultivating good governance, fighting corruption, and building a Malaysia for all Malaysians.

These may sound lofty, but they cut to the core of what Malaysia needs and what it has sorely missed for nearly half a century, despite which it has done rather well. These focus areas are underpinned by an acute diagnosis of the challenges facing our institutions today, which need urgent repair.

Poor governance engenders weak institutions that are either conveniently leveraged or susceptible to corruption and rent-seeking. These behaviours, when institutionalised, inevitably give rise to or reinforce administrative systems that are prone to bureaucratic capture and corruption, which then...