WE have come to this. Senior civil servants trading in their faith for a fistful of dollars. And, in some cases, some flesh as well.
It matters little to them if their criminal acts harm the nation and its people. Never have souls been put on sale like this. The "meat cartel" bribery case and those that have gone before cry out for urgent action. Nothing less than an immediate assessment of the extent of corruption at all levels of the civil service will do.
True, one bad apple doesn't spoil the barrel but, in the case of the civil service, it is one apple too many. Too often, too. And in the case of the "meat cartel", this newspaper's expose points to a 40-year rot. How did the people who matter sleep through such a deep slumber? We have just let slip a generation and a third. The usual lament is lack of manpower.
One such is that of the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department (Maqis), one of the four gatekeepers of all things halal into the country. In a Dec 13 Selangor Journal report, Maqis deputy director-general Dr Azhari Sharidah Abu Bakar bemoaned the ratio of 467 Maqis men to 57 entry points in Peninsular Malaysia. His complaint gets louder when he reaches Port Klang, where 24 Maqis men inspect 400 containers in a day. He has asked for 100 more and has got 80, but the lament remains.
Point taken. Quantity does help but more doesn't mean better. Quality matters. The incorruptible few are always better than the purchasable plenty. Corruption isn't a disease of the limbs. It is a malady of the heart. The remedy isn't in numbers, but who gets in and who stays.
A bad apple in a barrel of million such fruits may not be enough to spoil the 999,999. But given time, the rot will take root. Be that as it may, we aren't talking of one bad apple. There are perhaps an orchard full. If people have come to the point of trading in their faith for money or women, then that in itself is a sign that the disease is deep seated. We wouldn't know the extent of the rot until an assessment of the entire civil service is done.
But great care has to be exercised here. No fox must be allowed to guard the henhouse.
This Leader has suggested that such an assessment of the civil service must be led by no less than the head of the civil service, the chief secretary to the government. Discounting the lineage of the civil service to the British occupation of Malaya dating back to the 1700s, the Malaysian variety, properly so-called, is as old as the nation. We aren't aware of such service-wide assessment being done before.
While this exercise is being done to expedite the exit of the corrupt, the entry into the service, too, must be made foolproof. There is one other thing that needs to be done. The civil service must be so structured and armed with a system that makes it impossible for the giving and taking of bribes. Presently, there are just too many cracks through which cash and kind reach the civil servants.
Small wonder, Transparency International ranked Malaysia 51 out of 180 countries in the 2019 corruption perception index.
It will be in Malaysia's interest to be among the least corrupt in the world. An incorruptible civil service will get us there.