Immunity for on-going graft?

Categories: Malaysia

The proposal for a protection program to shield whistle-blowers in graft cases has won the support of Prime Minister Badawi. He said that there are some merits in such a program. This is because until now, despite the many letters of allegations received by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), the agency cannot act on them because of the anonymity of the letters. With a protection program, it is hoped that witnesses can come forward to help in investigations.

Not surprisingly, the PM has said that there should be gatherings of views from various interested groups before any final decisions are being made. This is to prevent new problems later. This would mean that corruptions will continue because going by previous standards, the government takes unusually long time, often years before final decisions can be made. In the mean time those who conduct grafts will go scot-free.

The ACA is correct to say that investigating anonymous letters of allegation may amount to playing into the hands of poison letters. However given the seriousness of the issues which can erode the government's integrity, should some of these letters be at least looked into. What I have in mind is something akin to preliminary hearing in the law courts to determine where there is a case to be answered. This can be done discretely without much huh-hah. Once enough incriminating evidence is found, only then will a full-scale investigation be conducted. In this way, at least there is some form of deterrent to any would-be culprit.

Even if the protection program were to be passed eventually, it does not guarantee that the whistle-blowers will reveal their identities. This is hardly surprising because given the mistrust of the people to the government agencies and police, the climate of fear is enough to thwart anyone to boldly pen their names in the letter of allegations. Moreover, most of the alleged corruptions involve people with some form of power.

The PM has promised many things since he took power 3 years ago. Until now nothing much has materialised. This is maybe due to him being Mr Nice Guy, to the extend that subordination occurred, making the implementation to be difficult. The talk on setting up an ombudsman, a police watchdog and committee to look into an MP possible misconduct has remains just that - empty talk. Therefore if history is anything to go by, I fear that the only protection program 'implemented' will be that which protect the corrupt.