JUNE 18 — Defence minister admitted recently that the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) indeed encountered the problem of inadequate assets, corruption, information leak and issue of integrity such that abduction cases kept popping up on the east coast of Sabah.
Armed militants infiltrated a fishing farm in Kunak, taking away a Chinese man from Perak. This was the fourth abduction case on the east coast of Sabah over the past seven months, dealing a further blow to the already bruised tourism industry.
Since the government is highly concerned about the security issue on the east coast of Sabah, why do we still see similar cases taking place before our eyes? This must have something to do with the human factor as highlighted by the defence minister days ago.
Now that the defence ministry has singled out corruption, information leak, and integrity as major factors in the repeated occurrences of abduction, it is imperative that we look into our weaknesses seriously.
If the human factors are not addressed, there is no way we can stop similar abductions even if the government is ready to pump more resources into ESSCom (Eastern Sabah Security Command), including military assets.
I wonder whether the government is prepared to take decisive disciplinary actions against those found negligent on the job. It was earlier said that the ESSCom director will be replaced, but in the end, nothing has happened.
The biggest problem with the country is that we never take accountability seriously, and this explains why we have not been able to put a determined stop to many irregularities that have squandered a lot of our national resources.
Under the accountability system, a minister is obliged to take actions against his official responsible for any irregularity and the responsible official will either be dismissed or transferred in answering to his lapse of duty.
Many might argue that resignation would not do anything to help since the mistake has been committed and the harm done. The responsible official should be allowed to stay on to make amends.
Just because we never take accountability seriously, many civil servants have treated their jobs as sure bets. They are never afraid of losing their jobs and therefore lack the sense of responsibility.
Thanks to the absence of accountability, many things remain unresolved. For instance MH370 has gone missing for over 100 days now, but our government has not taken any action to pursue responsibility or punish anyone. Little wonder that Australian defence minister David Johnston has said there are so many questions marks over the MH370 issue and there is a need to start the investigation all over again.
Use of fake passports to board the flight, SAR operations only four hours after the plane went missing, failure to intercept unidentified aircraft over Malaysian air space, etc. None of these have been properly accounted for.
In the AG’s 2013 report (second series) submitted to the Parliament yesterday, as many as 230 proposals were offered to help rectify the various weaknesses involving government departments, state governments and statutory organisations.
Najib promised last year that the AG’s reports would be tabled to the Parliament three times a year to enhance public surveillance on government departments in a bid to stem corruption and malpractice. Unfortunately the government has made little effort to hold those responsible accountable.
Acts of malpractice and misappropriation of public funds must be seriously dealt with, otherwise additional AG reports would not do anything to help prevent the irregularities.
The MACC should immediately step in to investigate after the revelation by the defence minister that the ESSCom indeed involved acts of corruption and information leak instead of announcing its plan to set up a provisional office in Lahad Datu.
As for the irregularities exposed in the AG’s reports, the MACC only opens the file to investigate but there is hardly any prosecution at all. Poor enforcement efficiency is among the principal factors that have contributed to our increasingly serious corruption problem.
Accountability should constitute a very important part in the government’s transformation programme. Unfortunately our politicians are so engrossed with the hudud law issue and arguments over the status of secular or Islamic state that they find themselves too busy to attend to more important issues such as good governance and management. — Sin Chew Daily
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
