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Has Pak Lah's anti-corruption drive gone awry?

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was firm when he declared war on corruption. But it now looks more like President George Bush's disarrayed war on terror. It turns awry before one's eyes. A business man, a cabinet minister, a few middle level civil servants are arrested and charged in court for corruption. Another 18 VIPs await their turn in court. The minister in charge of justice, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, says most would be prosecuted, but some could not for want of convictable evidence. The cabinet is frightened sick of the policeman's knock, after what happened to a colleague, Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam, and wants Pak Lah to slow down. One cabinet minister's house is raided while he is overseas. The market is rife with rumours of who next. The arrests though did not have the impact he expected from a society fed up of the creeping corruption around it and government inaction. The opposition dismissed it as an election gimmick. So did many a man on the street, he who would not be allowed to say their piece in the mainstream newspapers. No, says Pak Lah. It is a campaign to rid Malaysia of this evil, which to be fair until he took office did not officially exist. But there has been so many false starts and promises in the paste that it is taken as read that this is the new broom putting his mark while he still has the respect, as a new boy, of the street.

Pak Lah insists the crackdown would be unabated. "Everyone abhors corruption", he said, and it had the support of the people. It is not a gimmick. The Opposition is wrong about his intentions. But you know the Opposition. It would do anything to make fun of the National Front (BN) and poison the minds of Malaysians for political mileage. Mark you: "The election is the election. The government will carry out its obligations and we do not need to wait for the general election. Whatever we don't like - corruption - we will weed out," he said. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It does not matter if it is or is not an election gimmick. In the end, his success will rest on how many 'big fish' he sends to jail. That is the only success that will now be accepted, in the light of the minister in charge of justice, Dato' Seri Rais's statement that only convictable cases would be brought to caught. What we need from Pak Lah is not words but action. If it is an opposition gimmick, then so be it. Why should he be bothered by the opposition barbs. It would come around to accept him as a saviour if he can pull it off. He should dismiss these barbs, and carry on regardless. If he means what he says - there is not much to hope for that, if the past is any guide; other prime ministers have made such promises and not delivered - he would have this nation's enduring gratitude. After all, in his mind, it is not an election gimmick. And he, like everyone else, "abhors corruption".

But the campaign stumbled from the start. Tan Sri Eric Chia was defiant after he was charged for corruption when he headed the government-owned, and now shut down, Perwaja Steel, for seven years until 1996, promised sparks when his trial is held, that he would not carry the can for others. He could easily pay the RM2 million bail set. But Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam? His bail of RM1 million was paid by his daughter. How could the land and cooperative development minister from a poor family in Sabah produce this sum if he survived only on his income? That magistrates now routinely set bail in the millions, suggest an acceptance of no smoke without fire, and proven when they are met promptly. Pak Lah however lost this round when he would not sack Tan Sri Kasitah after he was charged. He appointed the man last month, and he wants him to be on leave instead until after the trial. He should suspend him without pay, until after the trial, or sack him. There is no danger of the man starving. There must be millions from where that million came from. Does it surprise then politicians in Malaysia are better financial planners than the best the banking and investment industries can provide. If Pak Lah does not act firmly on those charged, he loses ground.

Pak Lah cannot act in half measures. The ground does not believe he or his government want to root out corruption. The National Front (BN) government has over the years defanged the anti-corruption laws that no one has any fear of being caught if they are corrupt. There was once a rule about living beyond one's means, with the onus on the suspect to prove he does not. It was this rule that allowed the first director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, who rose to great heights as a Federal Court judge as Tan Sri Harun Hashim, to interdict two UMNO mentris besar, of Perak and Trengganu, in 1969. It frightened the government. The ACA has been progressively defanged that today for all the good work the ACA does, it cannot initiate prosecution of the high and mighty in government if the Prime Minister would not allow it. So whenever the ACA investigate a cabinet minister for corruption, he proudly claims he is vindicated, he could easily spend the next decade and more in jail. That is still the law.

There was one attempt to set this right. In 1997, the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, was on leave. His deputy, the now-jailed Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as acting prime minister, got the cabinet to amend the anti-corruption law to give it more powers including the right to investigate all records of whoever it investigates for up to six years previous. Retirement, or resignation, as now did not protect one. When he presented it to the cabinet, it was fiercely resisted until he asked in what now can only be described as political naivete if it does not support the amendments because the ministers have much to hide. It was passed. Two who did were one Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and one Najib Tun Razak. It was presented to Parliament, where it got its first reading quickly enough. But Dr Mahathir returned, reversed it, and it now lies in limbo. Since Pak Lah's view on corruption mirrors Dato' Seri Anwar, he should use that law as the basis, tighten its provision, and earn the undying gratitude of all and sundry that he would beard the goat.

One hopes he would. The signs of slacking are already there. Dr Mahathir insisted a cabinet minister is innocent until he is found guilty and all appeals are exhausted, and a pardon denied. Civil servants though are suspended at half pay during the process. Pak Lah applies this to Tan Sri Kasitah. Dr Mahathir misread the law. In any case that vanished when he sacked and humiliated Dato' Seri Anwar, and denied him his freedom while the cases against him wound its way through the courts. The man, ill and in a wheelchair, fights a rear guard battle in the courts to be allowed bail so he could get medical treatment. The government insists he is not entitled to it. He could, you see, subborn witnesses. But all his cases are on appeal. No witness are needed for legal arguments. Is the government afraid he would subborn the judges instead? Could not Tan Sri Eric Chia and Tan Sri Kasitah subborn witnessess? So, why are they given bail? Why is he reluctant to force Tan Sri Kasitah's resignation now that he is charged? Or does he takes this route because Tan Sri Kasitah is about to end his two three-year terms in the Senate, and would be automatically out of the cabinet? That could be, but he is at the heart of Pak Lah's most potent campaign as prime minister. He cannot afford to blink. He should not.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com