Say NO to Corruption

Transparency International (click here for more information) is a global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. The society publishes annual corruption perception index which measures the perceived corruption levels of public sector in 178 countries. I stumped upon the website in one of my Operation Management classes, using a score system of 0-10 with a score of 10 representing a corruption-free country, you have information on how your own country ranks in terms of this indicator. As it measures the corruption levels of the public sector, you have an idea of how corruptible or clean your government is.

While I am definitely proud to be a Malaysian, I am not proud of our score which stands at 4.4/10.0 in 2010. As far as I could recalled, it was 22 years ago that I was introduced to this practise of corruption. I was told that that in order to smoothen the process of getting my driving license I have to pay extra “coffee money”. Well, being a fresh high school level, that extra “coffee money” is not a small amount of money, by the way being a fresh converted Christian I was taught that bribing is not a right thing to do, so based on the conviction that I have I told the uncle from the driving school that I will opt for the normal route, that is pay for my driving classes on the frequency basis (RM12.00 per class) and I will only pay the exact amount of the cost of the practical test which was RM50.00. I passed the theory test, attended 10 practical lessons and went for the practical test.

I flung my first test by knocking the pole during side parking and taking the wrong route during the driving test, obviously there goes my RM50.00. I was determined to pass my test, so after a month I registered for the test again, paid another RM50.00 and passed both my parking and driving test. While majority got their license by paying the package price, I’m somehow pleased with my decision that I got mine the clean way. That is my first taste against corruption.

As time passed I realized that there were many other “coffee money” packages out there, the package to clear your car summons, package to get documents approved by certain authorities, festivities package, package to smoothen 1001 type of applications…… the list goes on. This mentality is not just happening in the public sector, as I started to work in the private sector I came across sales people asking for “commission” in the form of “special price arrangement” and so on.

I remembered that there was one occasion that our government tried to regain trust in the government by launching the CAT policy – Competency, Accountability and Transparency, traffic police officers were all seen wearing a tag “Don’t bribe me” with their patrol cars pasted with the same stickers. I am not sure how successful is the program but I don’t see them wearing the tag anymore, maybe another “Hangat Hangat Tahi Ayam” effort, a Malay idiom that stands for “A short term effort”. The issue of corruption is prevalent, we just have to be aware of what's is happening and open our eyes to these issues.

So the big question is…. Are we one of them, do we allow ourselves to be bribed or to bribe? We may not be one of the big timer "briber" but we may have willingly or unwillingly be part of it. I always believe if there is supply, there is demand. Stop the supply and the demand will stop. What is your decision the next time you beat a red light, litter, deal with the authorities, are you going to offer coffee money or are you willing to take up your guts, acknowledge your wrongs, accept the penalty, make the decision to do it right. Do you want to live in a country that is free of corruption where the administration is competent, accountable and transparent or do you want to live in a country where you are expected to dig deep into your pockets and pay your way out. I have made my decision 22 years ago, how about you? The next general election is coming soon, please pray and vote for a clean government.

1Malaysia

With the newly appointed PM, we Malaysians were presented with a new concept entitled 1Malaysia. Much debate has been brought up and interested parties at large wanted to know in detail what really is in our PM’s mind.

It is communicated that the two main objectives of this concept are nation building and nation unity, which makes me to think is it our nation has not been growing or building in recent years and our nation has not been united after 50 more years of independence?

As a Malaysian I am concerned over the future of my homeland, after all this is the land that my next generation and many generations to come that will reside, live, work and spend most of the time in (if not entire life)….provided if our government is serious in delivering the results of nation building and unity.

It is also enforced that 1Malaysia supports the aspiration of our Vision2020 (just 11 years to come) of building a Bangsa Malaysia (a Malaysian nationality). I for one highly supported the idea of abolishing the columns of “Bangsa” and “Agama” in all forms filling whether in official or non-official related matters. If our government is serious in the two main agendas as communicated, it should review all current policies to support these two objectives by eliminating favoritism, bias, special privileges in all its establishment and implementations.

Well, that’s indeed a daunting task and hard-pressed road ahead for our new PM and his team to work on, in which all of these will be closely watched, monitored, measured, evaluated and criticized by average Malaysians at large. Well, to Malaysians out there, are you watching??

What is your ambition?

I’m sure you have asked your child before what they want to become when they grew up? Michelle wanted to become a teacher and Emily wanted to become a nurse, over time Emily changed her mind and her latest ambition is to become an art teacher.

I recollected one of my conversations with Michelle concerning the above matter:

Michelle: Mummy, is it good to become a chef?
Me: Well, if you love to cook for people, why not?
Michelle: Mummy, is it good to work as a sales girl? (I guess she's exploring her career options...)
Me: Sales girl ar… depends but it’s quite boring wor..
Michelle: Guess what Jordon (her classmate) like to become?
Me: Hmm… doctor?
Michelle: No
Me: Teacher?
Michelle: No
Me: Pilot?
Michelle: Yes!.. teacher says pilot must not wear spectacles one wor… daddy cannot become a pilot lor…
Me: Yeah…
Michelle: Mummy, I want you to become a teacher…
Me: Later… mummy would like to become one also.
Michelle: Who will you be teaching?
Me: Big koko and jeh jeh in the university like USM…
Michelle: Yeah, you become teacher now lar
Me: Now? Nobody wants to employ mummy as a teacher yet
Michelle: Why? I want you to become teacher now (keep on nagging….)
Me: (sign…. Roll my eyes)

I wonder how many of you out there sticking to your original ambition?

Kiasi - Stock up!

We may be experiencing some political instability this coming Tuesday, 16th September. Friends and colleagues reminded me to stock up goods for my family. So I really did… stock up rice, milk powder, instant noodles, dry bee hoon, biscuits, cakes, drinks, fruits, eggs….. called me “kiasi” or what but even if I can stand hunger, my precious daughters can’t.

This afternoon we were jokingly discussing that maybe in our generations to come we may have to move out of our current land and forced to reside somewhere else. I have never thought of that, well as much as we seek for equality and justice, somehow we are conditioned to accept the fact that in this evil and decaying world we are in, equality and justice that we desired may not be attainable… unless majority has the guts to stand up against all odds in spite of the potential hardship that one may faced in the course of doing so.

A country is like a company, we have the board of directors and executives to run the company, the top guys set the rules, policies and decide how things should be run and done. Employees desired for equality and justice in pay, benefits, way of treatment and opportunity in the career ladder. Most of us work with others and some are bosses of their own….. for those who work with others I’m sure we seek equality and justice in the company that we work with and I hope for those who run their own business they will exercise equality and justice. Now if you yourself experienced injustice or you know somebody who are treated in an unjustly manner, what will you do?

Sometimes I wish I’m like my kids, no worries, if they feel that they are being “victimized”, they will just cry, wait to be comforted and things will be super duper okay for them. They can fall right away to sleep in less than 10 minutes while we adults sometimes toss left and right for hours struggling to fall asleep..worried over life matters. I tried to recollect some childhood memories but seems limited… I remembered I was pretty naughty, always played “stomachache” when mom asked me to eat something I detested, faked sleep when mom forced me to take afternoon naps, followed my sis wherever she goes……

For those who are like me being “kiasi”, please do stock up ya… just in case. Let’s pray for peace and goodwill on earth.

Pathetic pathetic

I'm sure for those who have been following Malaysia's politic scene knows what is the silliest happening in our world of politics. It's quite normal that in the game of politics one will use "dirty tactics' to bring down the opponent, whether the recent allegation made to one of our opposition main figure has any truth or not, the whole thing is really pathetic...

Sometimes I wonder how many politicians out there are really serving their nation out of genuine care for their people and not due to personal agendas... But one thing is sure, human morality is really decaying.... one could hardly imagine what one is capable of doing out of greed for power and status. It's pretty hard to judge who is the bad and good guy now even with all the so called proofs on hand, proofs too can be fabricated... how scary.

What will happen to Malaysia's politics in the long run? Who will be the next one to lead our country to the next level. What will happen to our generations to come? Only God knows and I pray God will have mercy on our land, on our leaders.

XX Politics XX

Recently I’ve been venturing into the world of politics, I used to listen to comments that politic is a dirty world, dirty in a sense that decisions are made based on personal gain, the abuse of power by higher authority, corruptions, injustice, malice and immorality. Government = Politics, meaning we are electing a bunch of immoral people (if not all, majority) to lead our country and expect them to take care of our welfare. Why people is so power crazy? Why is it so nice to be on top of the world, where everyone listens to you, you have all the say and have the highest authority to oppress the poor, unfortunate, people whom you do not like? Which makes me wonder, what happen to humanity, why can’t we be human just like God created us to be?

I saw the video on our ex-PM making a confession that he did indeed put an innocent man (his deputy then) to jail, accused him of corruption and the worst act of sodomy, in the name of power. How disgusting, he is our PM then, now if a PM can do this, just imagine the guys in the cabinet whom he has selected, will there be any good in them? This, you have to determine yourself, as for me I’m so disgusted.

I believe each of us will be judge according to our action when we stand before our Creator, whatever injustice exercised shall be dealt with accordingly. In spite of all these, will there still be hope for Malaysia, for our next generation? What does it take to revive our leaders, it starts with a little step from its citizen to reject corruption in any kinds, say no to injustice and faith in our merciful Creator. God destroyed every living thing back in Noah’s days but God also promise not to ever do so in future….. so if God is not going to punish us by destroying us then He must be merciful enough to lead us back on the right track again, I prayed the recent election’s result is a small step to a revival.

I have been awaken, how about you?

Wind of change

I’m not a political savvy person but something very strange happened, hubby and I were following the results of our 12th General Election until 2.00 am last Sunday morning. As much as I wanted to vote this time, due to some technical problems I did not carry out my citizenship responsibility, I know shame on me but the result is what I’ve been hoping for.

The whole nation is in daze just like any of us who followed closely the happenings prior to the election, the election itself and post election. History is created especially in Penang where the opposition teams are taking over for the first time in 40 years, but this time thank God everything is at peace. I went out shopping on Saturday night itself when the votes counting was in place, things were pretty quiet in the wee hours of Sunday and the whole day of yesterday was pretty normal, so there’s no hoo hoo ha ha over the political Tsunami results, not in Penang.

I’m glad Jeff and Tony (our brave bloggers) gained victory and also for those who really fight for a change this time round, the important thing now is to wake up from the daze, start planning for the road ahead. I’m sure voters vote against corruption and injustice, it’s my desire that the new ruling party really work delivering the commitments and changes vowed. I’ve also heard comments that maybe a lot of loosing candidates will join the new ruling force and probably we have to do another massive clean up 50 years down the road, I hope this will not happen.

We did not get a public holiday; I believe this showed how humble the winning parties were. Prayers are the party will work towards improving the citizen’s standard of living, eliminate poverty, fair allocation of wealth specifically for those who are in need, eliminate discrimination of all races, achieving a safe neighborhood, zero corruption, good will and peace on our land.

This time election has really opened my eyes and entering into the bloggers’ world gives me a whole new fresh perspective on Malaysia’s politics. Many say “Malaysia politics will not be the same again”, I totally agreed.