By J. D. Lovrenciear
The Regent of Perak, Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah must be commended
for speaking out against corruption that reeks in Malaysia to high heavens. If what is being reported is true to the last ‘T’, the
Regent said, “These temptations come in the shape of titles and money, in the
shape of beautiful women, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires, in the shape of
vacations and holidays, mansions and luxury condominiums”.
Addressing the audience at the Integrity Convention organized
by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission in Putrajaya, he has hit the
nail on the head. What must happen now is, that nail must sink real deep and
not just dent nor bend. The wise words of the Regent echo the very sentiment and
concerns that the rakyat have held so close to their bosom in their
determination to champion integrity. But that national commitment to fight graft
effectively and efficiently is certainly missing – as rightly acknowledged by
Dr Nazrin Shah.
And the General Elections results speaks volumes about the
rakyat’s anger in the government’s failure to fight graft. Interesting too, in expressing the need to emulate past
leaders, the Regent singled out Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and
Tun Hussein Onn. No mention of Tun Dr Mahathir? Or how about Pak lah? Or even
Najib in his past tenure?
Interesting times indeed!
In any case, the police need to recognize who is the real
enemy of this nation. It is not the rakyat who are clamoring, debating, championing
and fighting for justice, transparency, fairness, and above all clean and
honorable elections. The powers that be need to take the Regent’s speech word for
word and ask themselves to what extent have they been guilty. Just make inventories:
·
How many titles did you deserve for honest,
sincere achievements and contributions to society?
Did you take money that did not rightfully
belong to you?
·
Did you fall for beautiful women and if you did,
did you also get rid of them like toilet rolls?
·
How many affordable diamonds do you have? Did
you purchase these through your blood, sweat and tears?
·
What about the count of emeralds and sapphires
in your drawers? Looking at all those beads and glitter choking your face and
neck, it would be hard to believe you bought these at Petaling Street.
·
What about all those vacations? Did you pay from
your monthly salary? And if so, how could you have salvaged and scourged such
sums?
·
Yes are you living in mansions? We know so many
do. But who is paying for these given your humble salary as a civil servant?
·
Do you own condominiums? How come? Where did you
get all that money?
The rakyat will thank His Highness, the Regent of Perak,
Raja Nazrin Shah, for his courage in spelling out the obvious opulent signs and symptoms
of graft in this country. It is also not too difficult to identify the culprits
within the corridors of power who have trappings of all the above signs of
graft.
Now, the battle must begin not only to go after all those
who have fallen into these temptations but equally if not more importantly, to
haul up all those who also were behind in the trading of such sins against this
nation. We have talked. We have been talking. We cannot go on hoping
to talk some more. It is time to fix the mother-of-all-grafts and corruption –
the GE 13, for starters.
We need believable, immediate and universally transparent answers to
the allegations, reports, incidents and suspicions surrounding the cheating in
the general elections.
The police must protect the citizens who have been fighting
too long to save this country and redeem the dignity and honor of this nation. The enforcement agencies must cure themselves immediately of
all taints and shades of suspicion and allegation. Anything short of this will
rile the citizens and no corruption or any equivalent amount of threat will
stop the march to save Malaysia.
Shheessh……why must we wait till the end of a general
elections to talk of all these? Could we not have attended to these sins of
corruption long before GE-13?
Therein then rests the failure of power and control. When a
government fails in battling corruption despite having three solid decades, the
citizens have a right to march at the drum beat of “ITS NOW OR NEVER!” and that
is what we call true patriotism to nation and King.
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