COMMENT | What a wonderful mess Pakatan Harapan is in now. The catfight between former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former prime minister (twice) Dr Mahathir Mohamad over who is more corrupt is indicative of how Malaysians need to move on.

Like the Covid-19 pandemic, when the mainstream Malay establishment is in convulsions, it ruthlessly points out the deficiencies of the system. In this particular instance, the systemic corruption that plagues the Malaysian political and economic systems.

As Kua Kia Soong reminded us in a press statement titled 'Malaysia's financial scandals - memory jolt for forgetful politicians', one example (of systemic corruption) is how politicians were benefiting from preferential share allocations originally designed to help “ordinary Malays” under the NEP.

“Thus, in November 1994, it was revealed that relatives of prominent Umno politicians had been profiting from the preferential share-allocation scheme originally designed to help ordinary Malays under the NEP. Among these were Mirzan Mahathir, son of the prime minister; Marzuki Ibrahim, brother of the deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim and Fazrin Azwar, son-in-law of International trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz, who happened to chair the allocation committee. This information was only leaked to the public by Rafidah Aziz because she wanted to show that it was not just her son-in-law who had gained from the allocations. Is this corruption?”

The last general election was deemed an existential threat to Malaysia. After the election, Mahathir proudly proclaimed that “corruption” had been eradicated and this was one of Harapan’s achievements. He offered no evidence of such and what kept the momentum going were the Najib corruption trials.

Umno political operatives benefiting from a system of corruption are nothing new, of course. In 2013, Former Kota Raja Umno chief Amzah Umar denied any wrongdoing when it came to the land grab scandal in Shah Alam, offering this justification to what were essentially corrupt practices:

“We give a seven percent discount for bumiputera buyers and 12 percent for Umno members if I am not mistaken,” and (the cherry on this moist corrupt cake), “What scandal? It is all in the plan. You can check with Majlis Bandar Shah Alam, the state government or the district officer, everything is in order.”.

Everything is going according to plan when you are assured that the system never changes. Everything, that is, until a new regime comes to power, which was unheard of during the long Umno watch. There were deviations when it came to the mainstream political acceptance of corruption. PAS led by the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat was one such anomaly.

Nik Aziz (even if you disagreed with his ideological stance) was unambiguous when it came to this issue. "In the 20 years under my administration, the anti-corruption agencies have never been able to convict any of my officers. We denounced Umno because of their corruption and it will not be right if we come into power and end up being corrupt too. I tell my officers, you are answerable to God – not to me or to anyone else – you answer in the hereafter for your doings. The character is of priority and the mindset must be changed to include the world and the hereafter,” he once said.

Petty power struggles

I really do not understand Mahathir or Harapan for that matter. How is Harapan going to spin corruption the second time around? The 1MDB scandal was a one-shot thing. It worked on a certain section of the voting polity that desperately wanted change. Since then, with the demographic that is most susceptible to racial and religious politics, Najib has "reformed" his image while Harapan was busy engaging in petty power struggles. Even then, everyone in Harapan, certainly the political operatives who for years had portrayed the old maverick as an existential threat, forgot about all the scandals which the old maverick brought with him and was smugly confident that nobody would allude to.

We are told to focus on the bigger issue, but the reality is that the bigger issue has always been the institutional corruption that has led to squandered opportunities and a political elite who use government positions to enrich themselves and their cronies.

Now, of course, this fight between Najib and Mahathir about who “stole” more is just a reminder to an already jaded Harapan base that all this talk of change is meaningless. How exactly are DAP and Amanah going to act as surrogates for the old maverick when history and fact are not on their side?

Or are they going to remain quiet when it comes to this issue? Or justify support for Mahathir because PN is the new existential threat to Malaysia? As it is, Mahathir threw his allies under the bus with his ultimatum about not working with PKR. Now, there are going to be scandals galore, with both sides furnishing details of the criminality of the other.

Obviously, for the Umno/PAS base, corruption is not a major concern. There are many reasons for that, of course, but until Harapan managed to weaken the Umno hegemon, for decades, the majority of Malaysians happily voted in successive corrupt governments while folks like Kua and other activists were vilified as “idealists” who did nothing for the country.

What we are talking about here is systemic, institutional corruption, sanctioned by political operatives who have been a mainstay of the establishment for years. Keep in mind what Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer said when Harapan came into power: "The talk among the judicial members was that they were appointed because of the influence of an ex-minister whom they served earlier. I will reserve my right to say further to a royal commission of inquiry (RCI). They all knew it was business as usual and all the fear of tribunalisation had disappeared overnight and now they are looking forward to top positions upon vacancy. To me, I see it as one movement from a kleptocracy regime to another and nothing more."