“Good start, says Hong Kong’s ICAC”

That was the headline in the Star. Sounds good, right - coming from one fo the world's premier crime fighting forces? I mean, ICAC woh...one of the most feared and respected agencies in the world!

WRONG!!

Good start? Good START?!

Hello!!!

The Malaysian ACA was established in 1967 while Hong Kong's ICAC was formed seven later in 1974!! We had a seven-year headstart. And yet, the HK upstart is now patting us on the head and telling us: "Good start!"

Like what a daddy tells his kid who is just learning how to ride a bicycle!

HOW HUMILIATING!

We, the once-proud taikor in fighting corruption, are now being given a polite encouragement - "good start" - by a junior agency!

And it's not even "good job" - which would imply some sort of track record. "Good start" implies that absolutely jack shit has been done before this!

Well, it's no secret that Malaysia is corrupt and increasingly so. Malaysians have known it for decades, despite the bullshit that UMNO/BN feeds us. Just look at our corruption rankings:

Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI)

MALAYSIA:
1996 - no. 26
2008 - no. 47

That's a freefall of 21 places!

Our CPI score fell from 5.32 to 5.1 in that period (10 perceived as “highly clean” while 0 perceived as “highly corrupt).

In contrast, other Asian countries have either improved both their rankings or scores or both, viz:

1996 2008
Singapore 7 (8.80) 4 (9.2)
Hong Kong 18 (7.01) 12 (8.1)
Japan 17 (7.05) 18 (7.3)
Taiwan 29 (4.98) 39 (5.7)
South Korea 27 (5.02) 40 (5.6)
Malaysia 26 (5.32) 47 (5.1)

Oh my God! How the BN government has squandered our country's strengths!

40 years ago, Malaysia took the lead in the region in fighting corruption. Now, we are lagging far behind, and dropping even further down the rankings.

But let's not look at the past, you may say. Let's look at the future!

OK. Fine.

So far, the MACC has consistently failed in its duties to investigate corruption of powerful figures in UMNO/BN. You can read about it here and here.

Good start?

Or politics as usual?

If this government is unwilling to bring about the country's desperately needed reforms, if this government continues to insult the rakyat's intelligence with their charades, I say that this government is no longer a workable government.

It's time for the rakyat to show them the door out once and for all!