COMMENT | Why have successive governments allowed an issue to develop into a full-blown crisis instead of being open and transparent?

In most cases, it has been one denial after another, and only after a persistent and prolonged war of words and public pressure did we learn the truth.

The details of the 1983 Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal only emerged two years later when the Finance Ministry released an audit by a three-person panel led by the then auditor-general Ahmad Noordin.

In the case of the Port Klang Free Zone scandal, Malaysians learnt the extent of the losses and the key players involved after PriceWaterhouseCoopers conducted a comprehensive audit.

Now, we have the issue of a royal addendum which ordered former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest. This was in addition to the Pardons Board’s decision to commute his punishment from 12 years’ jail and an RM210 million fine to six years and RM50 million.