Well done, Sarawak MACC!

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Sarawak has dropped a bomb shell in the Land of the Hornbill by announcing that they have detained seven individuals comprising government servants, contractors, and middlemen who have been linked to a syndicate that abuse millions of federal development funds.

We wish to commend the Sarawak MACC Director Samsiah Abu Bakar for having taken the bold step to start cleaning out the murky water in Sarawak’s public sector.

While many Sarawakians will grumble about the apparent immunity of “big fish” in the Land of the Hornbill, we also believe that the Ten Thousand Mile Long March begins with the first step.
We also expect more arrests to be made in the days to come, as the MACC director has promised. Corruption in high and low places in Sarawak is pandemic, and any move to curb this festering cancer within our body politic must be supported by all Malaysians.

The MACC in Sarawak also have their credibility in Sarawak on the line. In Selangor, Perak, and elsewhere, MACC has been accused of selective investigation and prosecution, targeting only officials of the Pakatan Rakyat state government. Teoh Beng Hock’s tragic death and the ongoing inquest into his demise have cast the national MACC in very negative light.

Graft fighting would be much more effective with accurate and timely inside information from the public. If the Sarawak MACC can demonstrate their determination and resolve in arresting, charging and convicting corrupt officials and businessmen, surely they would entice more civic conscious citizens to come forth with more information elsewhere.
Funds a much welcome addition
Just last week, MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner (prevention) Zakaria Jaffar revealed that up to 60% of government development funds for parliamentary and state legislative constituencies have been diverted elsewhere.

Without revealing specific details, Zakaria did mention that the constituency development projects involved building roads, low cost housing, and mosques. He also mentioned cases where contractors double their project sum by double billing the MP and the state assemblymen for the same purpose.

In other cases, contractors were able to secure payment even though the job was not done.
The constituency development fund has been established long ago to enable elected representatives to help their constituents in implementing minor local projects such as roads, bridges, jetty, mosques and even housing that may be overlooked in the macro-development of the state’s infrastructure.

Sarawak is the second poorest state in Malaysia in terns of per capita income, ahead only of Kelantan. The backwardness of the socio-economic infrastructure in Sarawak is notorious, with many people still lacking basic facilities such as water, electricity, roads, and jetties.

The constituency development funds allocated by the Parliament and the Sarawak State Assembly are a much welcome addition to other development allocations in improving minor facilities in the rural communities, for roads, bridges, low-cost housing, jetties, and mosques.
These funds have been voted through Parliament and the Sarawak State Assembly for very specific purposes and in specific areas, and so cannot be hijacked by public officials and elected representatives for other purposes in other areas at their whim and fancy.

Good administration of public finance also dictates that every cent of the development funds that come out of the tax-payers’ pockets must be accounted for. Given Sarawak’s perennial but ravenous hunger for development funding, stealing from Sarawak’s rural poor through corruption is an unforgivable moral crime.

Informed Sarawakians know the extent of rampant corruption at all levels of public life. The link between politicians and businessmen are the staff of legends in numerous coffee shops throughout the length and breadth of this vast resource rich state. Public confidence in the self-policing of government agencies is not high.

Not via internal audit, Mr DCM
Therefore, we disagree with the proposal by the Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Dr George Chan’s proposal to check corruption in state development allocation through internal audit. How do you entice public confidence by asking the cat to watch over some fish?

A better alternative would be to invite the Sarawak MACC or the office of the Auditor General to probe into allegations of corruption in both state and federal departments and agencies, as these are statutory bodies which are meant to be independent of the administrative branch of government.
In this respect, the MACC should also demonstrate they would act against the corrupt without fear or favour. Since the elected representative of any constituency has a great deal of say over where their constituency development funds go, they should also be probed for the irregularities uncovered by the MACC so far.

For the moment though, it may not be prudent to expect too much from the Sarawak MACC. They are a federal agency working in a vast state with very unique political culture. Sarawak politics is a minefield with a phalange of local political warlords who have very sensitive political toes.

Nevertheless, we should give credit where credit is due. The MACC in Sarawak must be commended for their ongoing effort to arrest corruption, even in a minor domain such as the constituency development funds.

MM
04/12/09