To root out corruption?

Writer: Lin Jin Cai
Nanyang Siang Pau, Dec 5, 2015

Pakatan Rakyat or Pakatan Harapan’s rallying call in the general election is “march to Putrajaya, bye-bye to corruption.” However, to root out corruption depends much on the election system of the ruling party. Take the ruling party as an example. Their president, deputy president and three vice presidents are elected by the central delegates. They have to dish out goodies to please the delegates and win their support.

People are realistic and will return the favor by giving you the vote. However, if both contesting parties also give them the goodies, chances are the one who gives more will win. If there are two thousand delegates at the general assembly, you can count how much money is involved.

Once voted into their seats, the president, deputy president and vice presidents will sure want to recoup their money spent. Not only that, they have to make enough money for the next party election. People are greedy, the goodies demanded by the delegates are not about a few hundred or a few thousand ringgit, and it is about multi-million-ringgit projects. If there was no such project on the table, you would see the consequences in the next election.

When the project is in hand, the delegates, including even ministers, will see how much they can get. The quality of the work is no more in control by the government. Whether action can be taken against government departments which paid excessively for their purchases will fizzle out. Even Cabinet decision has to be endorsed by the general assembly. Otherwise, why are there the erratic policy changes?

If the ruling party is replaced by another party, the vested interest of these delegates would be threatened. What will happen then? Violent thugs will fight back, not only against the rival party but also take revenge against the community responsible for toppling the ruling party. When the time comes, even police are helpless to stop this bunch of thugs.

PAS, Keadilan and Harapan Amanah follow the same election system as the ruling party. Thus, none of them can say bye-bye to corruption. The ruling party in our neighbouring country is different where the delegates only elect about 15 central committee members and from among them, the president, secretary general and other key officials are chosen. In other words, the president and secretary general need not spend money to buy goodies to win the support of central delegates. Even if there was corruption, it would not be so serious. And if the current ruling party is corrupt, another party which replaces it would not be in trouble.

DAP practices the same system but it cannot rule Malaysia alone. If it is to form a coalition government with PAS, Keadilan or Pakatan Harapan, the situation will be just the same like MCA or Gerakan in Barisan Nasional. One can see the characters of PAS and Keadilan from the row over the replacement of Selangor Menteri Besar and the land reclamation issue in Penang.

If Malaysia is to root out corruption, it needs a strong party with an election system similar to the ruling party of our neighbor.

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