Our movement against bribery and corruption needs to start at the top. The fish, it is said, always rots from the head. But, given that people are not fish, we can say, \”People without a clear vision will perish\”. But who defines such a vision?

Leadership always defines followership. Poor leaders develop bad followers. Who then defines whether we must or should still move towards Wawasan 2020? Is Vision 2020 still our popular view of where we want to be as a nation?

Or, has our 20-20 hindsight taught us that we lack the clear 20-20 visibility to have even articulated such a big dream to achieve and seek to achieve, that is the per capita level of the US in 1980, by the year 2020?

After the current information and knowledge of systemic financial scandals of what is possible under the modern unlimited capitalism of the ‘greed is good’ thesis, do we really want to use the US as a benchmark of development?

Does not their development model also mean having two cars and a yacht, with a holiday time-sharing bungalow in Port Dickson? Is the hypothesis of the Sultan of Selangor; the ruler of the so-called most developed state in Malaysia, therefore correct?

Has greed overtaken the Malays in Malaysia that they are willing to sell their country and their traditional values? Have they reached such a point of modernity that they have become truly ‘ ughly ’ ?

Is Tan Sri G Gnanalingam in his The Star column of March 7 correct about ‘corruption in Malaysia and the world\’ and that even Harvard MBA-types are quite capable and able to undertake corruption of the worst kinds?

Whither then, US standards of good moral conduct and integrity? That now, even the CEO of Satyam (the word in Sanskrit means trust or promise) lost trust, honour, respect and dignity when he compromised his own values and then failed share holders of his company?

Whither then, the so-called standards of integrity? Need we go further? Are we, or should we, be pointing fingers at others, when we could be guilty of many wrongs ourselves?

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For example, why was the commissioner of the MACC so keen to point out the so-called weaknesses of the menteri besar of Selangor when he did not do the same about his own former boss in the ACA, where and whom he served under reputed times of extreme corruption?

Unless the MACC commissioner can prove to me that he has always and consistently spoken against all forms of wrong-doing even under the old regime, he is no better than those who throw stones at others while living in a glass house.

Understanding the problem

My reflection today relates to bribery and corruption and how to mobilise against these negative practices in Malaysia. Unless we understand the source and content of bribery, we cannot understand corruption. What is bribery?

Allow me to reflect based on where bribery started based on biblical ideas and ideals. Most who are familiar with the sacred scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths would know that the creation story starts at the beginning in the chapter by that title, Genesis.

According to the biblical account, bribery started in Genesis when Satan deceived Eve into tasting from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Bribery was a process which started with a doubt about who God is, or believing what God had said to Adam.

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Bribery in ordinary life is when we deceive ourselves into believing that the good old traditional and universal values are no more valid or good enough. Instead, the newer values of modernity, that of the ‘greed is good worldview’ is what is really good, true and right.

Thereby, when we subscribe to these newer values, and define all good earthly opportunities in terms of ‘ownership rather than stewardship,’ we actually have bought into the secular values of modern ‘ughly’ capitalistic economics!

I agree mine may be a radical view but unless we review and consider them based on the genesis of all such greed and self-interest, we cannot understand and appreciate the real values of life and living.

Therefore, life becomes an opportunity for all of us to live a life of destiny before our own notion of our ‘gods’, which can also become our idols. Bribery at the personal level is therefore when we put our personal self interest before that of God’s or good values.

When people, including all those in leadership within any system subscribe and live by such political values, then corruption sets into that system, whether the system is a family or a large organisation or even a nation.

Calling all good leaders

Therefore, our fight against bribery and corruption must start at the top. The bible says leaders must have certain clear and identifiable good values. What are they? Let me state just a few:

1. They must want to lead and be people of unquestionable high integrity;

2. They must be above reproach; that is they have a good reputation with outsiders;

3. They must be leaders of their own family first, and have demonstrated the capability and capacity of raising their own young ones to maturity with good values;

4. They must be temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to too much wine, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not lovers of money; and

5. They must believe that God is and that He will judge all in the final days; and this is the ultimate and final accountability of all human beings.

Therefore, where can and should we start with the quality and ability of leadership in our fight against bribery and corruption?

My personal reading and rendering of the different selected MACC members and committees gives a high degree of satisfaction. To his credit, maybe, this is the furthest Pak Lah can go under his own leadership model.

Therefore, I am extremely glad that the one of the first decisions of the MACC was to rebuke their commissioner regarding his politically incorrect statement and views about the menteri besar of Selangor. That was a very good start.

Let me also give a piece of advice to the MACC and its officers: You all are the only hope for true leadership in our battle against bribery and corruption. Please do it simply and faithfully, and you will be rewarded in the last days.

May God give you all the wisdom and knowledge to undertake your task faithfully and successfully. God bless Malaysia.