JANUARY 30 — The issues of scandals and governance failures are sufficient to take the discussion on accountability and good governance back to basics.
In small social groups, these issues are either being discussed openly on social media, or discreetly via Whatsapp and text messages, or even at our local coffee shops.
One may wonder which scandal I am referring to. The very fact that we are wondering which — among the pool of scandals — is being discussed reflects the current situation that Malaysians are currently in.
From 1MDB to Tabung Haji, people are talking. Reports exposing plenty of administration misconduct, misappropriation of funds, and other government-linked scandals seem to be getting off the hook recently.
Too many, that doubts are starting to form. Confidence in the future of Malaysia among regular Malaysians is beginning to melt away.
Questions are being asked not just about the means to practise good governance but also about how it ends. Thus, questioning the transparency of the public service and the executive branches of the Malaysian government reflect on the performance of these institutions, and have now extended to the question of whom these institutions should be accountable to.
The crisis of confidence in these institutions — caused by failures in their governance — has invited broad criticism against them for their conduct and its effect on society as a whole.
Is it worth it to suffer such crises in confidence in order to create a façade for those who are democratically replaceable? Some might argue that for the sake of stability of the country as a whole, certain measures have to take place and a few must be avoided.
Apparently, these measures were not made to save interested self-serving parties from their downward spiral of doom. However, how many of us bought that argument?
I may not be able to speak for the whole country but I do have plenty of friends and acquaintances, partisan and non-partisan, from public and private sectors, those who are still in Malaysia and those who pursued greener pastures elsewhere, voicing out their concern and worry about the future of the country.
Many feel helpless. Some don’t think of coming back. They have lost their confidence in their own tanah tumpah darah. I am sure many other Malaysians share the same sentiment.
Is our culture to blame?
In Japan, the Economy Minister Akira Amari was alleged to have received bribes worth 12 million Yen (equivalent to US$101,000 or RM418,831) from a construction company in return for some favours linked to land ownership.
Mr Amari, who is also the architect of Abenomics, announced his resignation on Thursday amid these corruption allegations. He admitted that he received the money and wanted to declare it as a political donation, but it was mishandled by his staff, he claims, according to the New York Times. His resignation follows after a Japanese magazine made the allegation just two weeks ago.
Japan is ranked 18th in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2015 scoring 75 out of 100, on a scale of 0-100, with zero meaning highly corrupt to 100 being very clean.
Japanese political and corporate leaders practise the culture of accepting blame and resigning, taking responsibility for their failures and misconduct, a culture which mostly likely developed from the Samurai’s Bushido code of conduct.
However, in most parts of the world, this practice somehow does not exist. Leaders like the United States’s former President George W. Bush, or even flavour of the month Donald Trump for that matter, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe or Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza were/are very unlikely to express remorse and resign.
What is more prevalent is the urge to cling to power at all costs, including causing a crisis of confidence among party members, citizens and even the international community.
Malaysia, sadly, is no different. Instead of practising a good code of conduct or honour like the Japanese, we arguably seem to be adapting the culture of Hang Tuah, practising absolute blind loyalty to leaders or the conduct of Tun Mutahir of Malacca who allegedly committed corruption to increase his wealth and influence.
Tun Mutahir was the seventh Bendahara of the Malacca Sultanate. He was rumoured to be favouring his family members and close friends by letting them hold important positions in the administration in return for their loyalty. These corrupt practices arguably contributed to the Malacca Sultanate’s downfall in 1511.
Had Tun Mutahir been a Bugis warrior, the Sultanate might have had a better chance to survive amid their bad practices. Because Bugis warriors are kebal (untouchable) and a lot tougher to defeat no matter how unpopular they are!
Is it in our culture to grant power and invincibility to wrongdoers, in exchange for loyalty to the master? Those who question or wish to act against the interest of certain self-interested parties miraculously find themselves too “ill” to work, promoted and transferred to a different department or worse, fallen from grace within 24 hours.
If we keep on rewarding misconduct and punishing those who are exposing or seeking the truth, we are clearly sending out a very wrong message to our own citizens, our children and the international community.
Is this the type of culture we are nurturing? Is this the type of foundation we are building our country on?
If we are indeed facing a crisis of confidence due to these bad practices, how do we even begin to fix this and how do we do it? Perhaps by going back to our common values and reflecting on what could have been done better.
Perhaps instead of Hang Tuah and Tun Mutahir, we need more Hang Jebats in this difficult time.
Kerajaan Melaka berdetik dalam arus sejarah,
Diam-diam laksana harimau menghendap mangsa,
Jebat bersumpah:
Raja adil raja disembah
Raja tak adil raja disanggah!
(Usman Awang 1992:19)
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
