KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 ― Politicians are motivated to be corrupt in order to fulfill the wrong expectations of Malaysian voters, think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) asserted today.

Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan also said Malaysia was trying to tackle corruption by focussing on law and punishment, rather than examining factors that may compel a person to turn to graft.

He explained that corruption in Malaysia is bigger issue and driven by voters' mindset that elected lawmakers were beholden to them and, consequently, must provide aid to voters for anything from flood relief to cash for school fees and uniforms.

"It is things like these ― this dependency, this wrong expectation on politicians to provide financial support for voters of that constituency and if they don't do it, then they will be losing out, there's a risk that they might not be voted in again ― this expectation for them to spend on constituents creates a motivation for them to be corrupt,” he said at an anti-corruption forum here.

Wan Saiful said these politicians may not be "corrupt as a person”, but would be forced to find other avenues to raise funds as their monthly salaries and allowances would be insufficient for them to spend on the large number of voters in their constituency as expected.

He gave the hypothetical scenario of a lawmaker with around RM20,000 monthly income serving a constituency with 17,000 voters with 10,000 of them have school-going children.

Wan Saiful highlighted that elected politicians' role should instead be making laws, noting that they should be expected to make policies to address annually recurring floods instead of dishing out aid.

"We have to make sure voters ― the population at large ― acknowledges the fact that legislators are elected to legislate, not to become welfare officers. It will take a long time… but that is the reality we face today, I think the mentality needs to be changed,” he said.

Wan Saiful was speaking at a public forum by Ideas titled "Supporting the MACC in fighting corruption in Malaysia”.

When met after the forum, Wan Saiful said that both politicians’ practice of the patronage culture as the easiest way to gain voter support and the voters’ realisation that they can expect handouts "feeds into each other” to perpetuate a "vicious cycle”.

"The system just perpetuates itself, so it’s a very bad culture and a very difficult one to stem, to get rid of. I’m not sure how to do this other than to educate the public about the real role of our legislators,” he told reporters.

While it may sound a bit unfair to place the onus on voters to change, Wan Saiful said that voters in the current system get what they vote for and that it is they who ultimately make their voting choices.

"I think at the end of the day, politicians follow the flow. Politicians will simply gauge what is the demand made by the public, and whatever the public wants, it will give it. That’s why I think the change will come only when the public changes,” he said.

In illustrating how the patronage system can be changed, he said politicians will stop giving handouts if such practices are met by the public’s refusal to vote for them.

"But the change has to come from the public, it cannot come from the politicians, you cannot expect them to do it. Because if the public still demands handouts, (while) politicians offer good governance, it doesn’t match, they will still lose,” he added.

At the same forum, panellist anti-corruption group Transparency International Malaysia’s (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar said elected lawmakers "have no choice but to get involved in corruption” as voters would expect financial aid, adding that the public must be told to not make such requests.