Time to redirect that anger

Malaysia has many guardians of morality especially when it comes to the way women dress, but they choose to stay silent on corruption.

EVEN when we make the news for the right reasons, there’s always a dark cloud on the horizon.

What a week it has been for Malaysia. The day that Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh was crowned Best Actress at the Oscars was also the day that a former prime minister was charged in court.

Yes, we made global headlines, but for the right and wrong reasons.

And amidst the almost-universal outpouring of admiration and respect for Yeoh’s historic win for Malaysia and Asians in general, there are haters who try their best to pour cold water on her achievement.

The latest broadside was from a celebrity Muslim preacher who posted on Instagram that it was wrong to be proud of Yeoh’s Best Actress nod.

“We cannot be proud of something that doesn’t benefit the faith. Leave it to the faithless,” he said.

You have to wonder if these guardians of morality deliberately spew nonsense to garner more likes and shares on social media.

The week before, Korean super group Blackpink performed in front of a sell-out 60,000 crowd in Bukit Jalil.

By all accounts, it was a huge success. Record sales meant that the government would have garnered in excess of RM1mil from entertainment and withholding taxes. Some 8,000 of these concert-goers were foreigners, flying in from India, China and even Australia.

The indirect benefit to the country would have been immense – hotels, restaurants, tourism would all have benefited.

But yet again, we have critics who questioned the rationale of hosting concerts like Blackpink which could “affect the beliefs of Muslims”.

In the same week that the girl group performed here, there were two incidences of women being turned away from government offices ostensibly for indecent attire.

Women being denied entry to government premises due to supposed non-compliance of dress codes isn’t something new, but the resurfacing of these incidences points at a larger malaise that the country appears to be heading to.

When we focus on policing women’s attire and when even a harmless women’s rights march is being investigated, something is seriously wrong with this country.

Where is the anger and indignation at the numerous corruption cases the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) is bringing to trial? Why are our champions of morality silent about these?

Corruption is a cancer that has permeated every level of Malaysian society. Our nation ranks 61 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (2022 score), a steady decline from a low of 23 in 1995.

This systemic corruption in various levels of society, from the civil service to the private sector, is so great that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has made tackling corruption a top priority of his administration.

“The threat to the survival of the Malay community is systemic corruption and not other races,” he told a gathering of businessmen in late January.

He said certain political leaders continued to harp on how the well-being of the Malays were affected by other races because they benefited from such corrupt practices in order to gain power.

Such leaders, he said, also used race and religion cards to distract the people from fundamental issue of governance.

Could it be then that the heightened racial rhetoric on social media, fuelled by politicians and religious figures, is just a ploy to distract us from the issues that really matter?

“Corruption is a cancer on society that threatens the economy and the country’s democratic system,” said Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali two years ago at a high-profile corruption trial.

The learned judge is of course correct, but sceptics will point out that the majority of those charged for corruption in the last few years have yet to see a day in jail. But justice must be seen to prevail, even if sometimes its wheels appear to be turning ever so slowly. In many of these high-profile cases, the appeal process is ongoing and only when this is exhausted can we expect to see closure.

It is still a long road though for Malaysia in its fight against the endemic corruption that has gripped society. This pestilence has seeped through every layer of society, not only at the political class. And if there isn’t collective will on our part to fight this, the country as a whole, will continue to suffer.

But maybe this time around, there is a chance to fix it. It is crucial that the current administration walks the talk.

So let us not be distracted by those who have a vested interest in dividing the country.

The only way forward is adopting a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, strengthening parliamentary reform and ensuring the independence of the judiciary and key institutions, such as the MACC, Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Police.