Do
not get me wrong. If this is some sort of revenge play, then I admire
the fact that Anwar has the cojones to go after mainstream political and
financial sacred cows. But my admiration for such an act does not help
the rakyat who suffered because of these corrupt personalities and their
enablers and it certainly does not rectify the systemic dysfunction.
The
fact that Thomas is shepherding the defence of former finance minister
Daim Zainuddin and his family points to how intertwined the mainstream,
political, legal, and financial establishment is, and how Daim may have
more options than what is speculated in the press.
The second time Dr Mahathir Mohamad came into power, he claimed that
corruption in Malaysia was no longer a serious issue because Pakatan
Harapan had swiftly handled the Najib issue.
As reported in the
press - āThe fact is corruption is not a very major issue anymore.
Previously, of course, people talked about corruption but now there is
less and this has been noted by those people.ā
And, just recently,
he disavowed his responsibility for any corruption in Umno (which he
and others have always claimed as corrupt) - āIf they (the authorities)
noticed any irregularities, they should not have waited for the prime
ministerās directive to address the issueā¦ That was not my job. That was
the job of the police, the (then Anti-Corruption Agency). They should
have taken action.ā
And
one wonders if Daimās memory is as dodgy as Tommy assumes if he will
remember the decades of political and financial malfeasance of his
enablers from within the government and the private sector and those
close associates Madani desires to prosecute. And what would happen if
the money trail leads back to players in Madaniville? There are only so
many times discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) can be used,
right?
This is supposed to be about the system. Whatever Daimās
fate, the reality is that unless the system is reformed, all this is
political theatre meant to distract the masses who in reality - because
of decades of programming - probably do not even understand that Daim is
part of the problem when it comes to their economic, social, and
political suffering.
It also does soften up public perception when
it comes to the corruption of former prime minister and convicted felon
Najib Abdul Razak, because whatever Najib did may not come close to the
scope of what Daim might have done and who he did it with.
And
the political class wants you to be distracted. Sure, the spectacle of a
former AG who brought down a former prime minister going against the
current AG, going after the rumoured political money man for another
former prime minister is worth the popcorn but it is meant to distract
from the fact that the AGās department, like everything else in this
country, needs to be reformed.
Why reforms are not coming
P Gunasegeram
just wrote a piece about reforming the role of the AG by devolving
power and giving it back to investigative bodies which would ensure that
corruption, for instance, would be persecuted without fear or favour.
He wrote - āIf Malaysia is to fight corruption and have an impeccable law and order system, these are necessary measures.ā
For
decades, an allegedly corrupt figure like Daim was unmolested and do
you really think it was because we had an independent prosecution
service? The question we should be asking now is how we make the
prosecution services transparent and accountable and not subservient to
the executive.
This way, when big fishes are displayed, the rakyat
will know it really does not matter how close they are to the political
class, because the political class (if corrupt) would be in the
crosshairs of the prosecution services and independent investigative
bodies.
But
the political class isnāt doing that, right? They want you to see the
big fish but not the whole rotten system that those fish swim and spawn
in and which has nurtured numerous big fish for decades.
It is the same reason why the political class does not want local government elections.
For
far too long, the federal government through its proxies has engaged in
corrupt practices and destroyed local economic ecosystems to satisfy
commercial interests, while people who live in these communities have
very little say over them.
In an environment where there is no
transparency or accountability, plutocrats, kleptocrats, and their
enablers thrive. And yet for all the rhetoric about reforming the
system, there has been none so far but what the rakyat have got is the
spectacle of big fishes dangling from hooks.
Successive governments have always feared reform and they have always been the circus to distract people.
Talk
about the police having a horrible year. Well, the answer to that was
always an independent police commission. This way, the police can be
held independently accountable and senior police officers would not have
to come out of the woodwork signalling that the force is going down the
manure hole.
But because the system is predicated on the āour boyā
mentality, what the political class does is attempt to ensure they have
a stake in how and why the state security apparatus carries out its
duties.
Even more damaging to the average rakyat are the various
fiefdoms in the PDRM aligned with the political class, which ensures
practices like corruption and financial malfeasances rarely see the
light of day, not to mention a black economy that also funds the
political class.
However, all this will be forgotten with the Daim
circus in town. Politics is more often than not about displaying scalps
and there is enough schadenfreude (pleasure in the misery of others) to garner votes. But schadenfreude does not reform the system nor does it halt the religiosity that is supplanting secular and democratic norms.
This is not about justice or karma, but merely big business and bigger politics.
