Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : HOTEL ISTANA, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 28/06/2003
Tajuk/Title : THE TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL
MALAYSIA NATIONAL INTEGRITY
MEDAL AWARDS CEREMONY
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
I wish to thank the President, Tunku Abdul Aziz,
and Members of Transparency International Malaysia for
their kind invitation to my wife and I to take part in
this Celebration of Integrity in National Life.
2. The posthumous Transparency International Malaysia
National Integrity Medal awards are posthumously
conferred on Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul
Rahman, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Ismail Mohamad Ali,
and I am privileged to present them this evening to the
representatives of their families. The awards were
instituted, I am told, some four years ago to honour
Malaysian men and women who, in the course of their
public duties, have demonstrated their capacity and
determination to confront corruption decisively by
upholding the principles of integrity, honesty and
accountability. I cannot think of anything more fitting
than this initiative by Transparency International
Malaysia to remember and honour Malaysian men and women
of undisputed integrity.
3. I have often enough stressed the importance of
good values to be believed in and practised by
individuals and by the community in order to achieve a
peaceful, progressive and successful society. And
integrity is certainly one of these honourable values.
4. The personal virtues and qualities, as exemplified
by the three Tuns, which we so much admire, are even
more relevant today than ever before as we struggle to
strike a balance between material progress and
spiritual development. Both are necessary ingredients
in the process of nation building. We have seen a
steady deterioration and erosion of ethical standards
of behaviour in both the public as well as the business
sectors, with predictable consequences for sustainable
human development, not only here in Malaysia, but
unfortunately in many of the countries we look up to.
5. These are therefore universal concerns, and let me
quickly assure you that while we have ethical problems
at our own doorstep, we did not invent corruption, and
we are not an incubator that has bred some of the scams
in corporate life that we have seen in many of the
developed countries, countries that have at one time or
another assumed the moral high ground to harangue and
lecture us on good corporate governance even as they
were busying themselves developing incentives for their
companies to bribe foreign public officials in their
quest for contracts or sales. Many of these OECD
countries went so far as to offer tax breaks for
bribery committed outside of their own borders. Thanks
to the persistence of Transparency International in
denouncing this blatantly shameless example of
unmitigated cynicism, this ethically unacceptable
practice has at least been officially condemned, though
unofficially it continues. This is testified by the
frequent exposures of this practice that we read about.
6. I am all for taking lessons from anywhere in the
world, but I draw the line when the preacher falls
lamentably short of the code of conduct he sets for
others in his sermon from the pulpit. That having said,
we must develop our own high standards in our business
transactions that go beyond mere statutory compliance.
We must ensure that we stay ahead of the game as far as
ethical governance is concerned because anything short
of the best is simply not good enough. We have to
compare our public behaviour with the world's best, and
in today's terms, according to Transparency
International's Corruption Perceptions Index, it is
Finland, the country that year in and year out tops the
list of the least corrupt and most ethical country of
those listed in their international index. I know we
have some way to go, but given the level of public
support that the Anti-Corruption Agency now enjoys, and
the wide-ranging anti-corruption measures now firmly in
place, we can get to be among the highest ranking
countries. We have to, because this country produces
goods for the world and corruption adds to the cost and
renders us uncompetitive.
7. Our concern today is that in allowing ourselves to
be distracted and consumed by material rewards, or,
calling a spade a spade, greed, we tend to abandon our
personal values, values that can make a world of
difference to the way we order our lives. I have
absolutely no doubt at all that our future as a viable,
modern, and balanced nation will depend not only on how
quickly we learn to master cutting edge technological
innovations, but also, and perhaps even more important,
how prepared we are as individuals and as a community
to recognise the importance of what Transparency
International calls a national integrity system. It is
through mutually reinforcing institutions, ethical
standards, legal regulation, and other measures that
standards can be raised and corruption reduced in the
public sector agencies. All this should be possible
within our democratic framework. Let us not forget
though that it takes two for corruption to be
consummated, the giver and the receiver. The business
sector is as culpable as the public sector.
8. Let me now turn to a consideration of corruption
as an impediment and obstacle to sustainable
development. Corruption obviously is a cost, an
unnecessary and an unproductive cost. Worse still, it
has a way of escalating, and so continuously reducing
the competitiveness of a country, something that is
terribly important for Malaysia whose trade is twice
the size of its GDP. We just cannot afford the
additional cost.
9. Unless we fight corruption now, we run the risk of
corruption becoming endemic.
10. Corruption goes through two distinct stages. In
the first stage the society regards it as wrong, a
crime and a shameful act. At this stage the corrupt,
both the giver and the receiver, would not openly
practise corruption. There will be signs and
indications of a lack of integrity but corrupt
practices will not be blatant. The money is passed
under the table almost literally.
11. It would still be possible to manage and to reduce
corruption at this stage. It would certainly be
possible to investigate, arrest and charge those
suspected of corruption, and so deter others.
12. But unchecked, corruption will move on to the
second stage, when it becomes a way of life for the
society. Everyone pays bribe to everyone else and
there is no need to hide. The bribe is passed over the
table, not under. Nothing is done without bribes being
paid. And the recipient will pay also when he has a
need for any service.
13. At this stage corruption cannot be reversed. Even
the anti- corruption agency will accept bribes for
looking the other way. The police, the courts will do
the same. Anyone, any leader trying to put a stop to
this culture of corruption will find everyone including
his closest colleagues and family against him. He will
have to expose his best friends, members of his family
and everyone if he wants to restore integrity. It will
take a giant of a man to try and he would probably
fail.
14. If corrupt practices are to be stopped it must
never be allowed to go to the over the table, can be
arranged, second stage.
15. Fortunately Malaysia has not reached that stage.
It is still possible to arrest and prosecute corrupt
officers and their corrupters in Malaysia. Indeed
every year we see quite a few being prosecuted and many
had departmental action taken against them.
16. In the final analysis it is the public which
determines whether corruption becomes a culture or not.
Many believe that the big fish must be got at but the
minnows are not important. But the culture of
corruption begins with the minnows. They don't stay
minnows forever. Some will get to high places since
their early small-time indiscretions receive no
attention. Besides, when corruption is tolerated among
the minnows, the big fish gets encouraged and society
as a whole would accept the practice. It becomes a
culture and the culture of a people is the most
difficult thing to change.
17. We can have laws of course. But we must have
noticed that despite the laws, including punishments
such as the death penalty, crimes continue to be
committed. Those who do not commit crimes are not
really deterred by the laws and the punishments. They
avoid crimes, just as they don't take drugs because
they believe it is wrong to do so. In other words, it
is self-discipline and adherence to good values which
prevent them from doing what is wrong and only
incidentally because of laws and punishments.
18. Illegal gratification is attractive because of the
obvious immediate personal gains. It is difficult to
convince the corrupt that he will lose even if he is
not caught. But in the long run he will have to pay
up. A country where corruption is a way of life will
never be able to develop, no matter how rich it may be.
And a country which remains poor cannot possibly give a
good life to the corrupt. He too will have to expend
his corruptly obtained wealth on corruption. In the
end his gains would amount to nothing compared to his
colleagues in cleaner countries. And life in general
would not be good for him, having to pay his way
through for things that he should be getting free.
19. Historically the Malay states were not able to
progress because of corruption. The taxes collected
mostly never reached the royal treasury. Along the way
much of the taxes went into the pockets of officials
high and low. When a Chinese businessman offered a
fixed sum much larger than the tax collectors were able
to collect if he was given a monopoly of tax
collection, the royal treasurer immediately agreed.
And sure enough the enterprising Chinese was not only
able to deliver on his undertaking but he made very
handsome profits for himself. And as a result he was
also given the opium monopoly, a very lucrative
concession indeed. And so the corrupt officials lost
everything.
20. The British colonial administration terminated
this concession, collecting the taxes themselves more
efficiently and taking over the opium monopoly as well.
The latter was the most important source of revenue for
the British administration in the Malay states.
21. The British also offered Malay Rulers political
pensions, which in fact were bribes to make them hand
over the administration of their states to the British,
a virtual colonisation despite the charade of the so-
called protectorate status of the Malay States. It
took a long time before the sovereignty of the Malay
states was restored.
22. This is a very interesting case history about how
the Malay states were colonised through bribery.
Clearly a country can be completely lost through
bribery and corruption. And Sir Harold Mc Michael
continued the tradition of offering bribes to the Malay
Rulers, when he offered to recognise the rulers and
give them their pensions and privileges if they signed
the Mc Michael treaties handing over their birthrights.
Fortunately offers of position to the leaders of the
newly emerged Malay political party and 5 million
Ringgit to set up RIDA, the Rural Industrial
Development Authority did not result in these leaders
giving up their quest for independence.
23. Malaysians, and the Malays in particular should
therefore know the dangers of corruption and bribery
and should avoid it like poison. Unfortunately, there
are many Malays and Malaysians who see corruption as an
easy way to get rich quick. If they are not careful
they might lose their nation to the most persuasive
corrupters.
24. Rejection of corruption must therefore be
instilled in the minds of all Malaysians early and all
the time particularly among the young. They should
learn from their history and they should be constantly
reminded of how they lost their independence and very
nearly lost their country completely when the Mc
Michael treaties were signed. Next time the exit may
not be so easy.
25. Corruption cannot be fought through laws and
punishment alone. The most effective weapon against
corruption is discipline and good values. Equip the
people with this culture and three-quarters of the
battle would be won.
26. It is because integrity is so important in the
life of the individual and the nation that all should
support Transparency International. May I congratulate
the families and relatives of the posthumous winners of
the National Integrity awards and may the winners be
the models for all of us.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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