Many do not realise how closely corruption affects our daily lives. It is not a joking matter anymore, neither is it a matter to be confined to the simple talk in the warong kopi. It is endemic in Malaysia and even many young school children believe it is okay to pay bribe to get what you want. The future therefore looks bleak as leaders and young Malaysians carry on their life in reckless lawlessness and corruption.
We wake up two months in the year not to fresh, clean air, but to hazy smog. Everywhere you go within the Klang Valley, there is the smell of burning wood. Except for one year - in 1998 when the Commonwealth Games was held in Kuala Lumpur - Malaysians live every year with this strange smoky phenomenon. Somebody is not doing their job and corruption is at the bottom of it.
An investigation into the development around the Klang Valley since 1989 will see the wanton destruction of forest reserves and green lungs in and around the Klang Valley. Temperatures rise as a result.
Public buses in the Klang Valley use to be clean when they first got rid of the old blue Sri Jaya buses. Today, they are worse than the old Sri Jaya buses, puffing out black smoke and an eyesore to many with their sloppy paint job.
Lorries are having accidents on the highway due to brake and tyre failures, where sometimes many lives were lost. How can this be when these vehicles have gone through thorough yearly inspections at the JPJ (Road Transport Department)? Unless the vehicles are not inspected but approved anyhow.
We pay a hefty price for everything from petrol to food, yet we have or had the tallest buildings in the world, F1 races, a dilapidated sports village and a dingy international airport in Kuala Lumpur. If anyone would bother to do an analysis, one would find corruption behind it all.
Civil servants, political leaders and advisors and even businessmen are selling our country out. Public funds are misused and siphoned. Businesses cannot grow and we cannot compete internationally as a result.
The Inland Revenue Department goes knocking on every business' door collecting whatever they can find. Why not go after the millions and billions siphoned out over the last 20 years from corrupt politicians and businessmen?
Bring them to trial, and if they can't pay up, lock them in jail. Our dear PM's token actions is just insufficient to turn this country around. We need change and we need it quick.
