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Malaysian net catches sharks - or
anchovies
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Malaysia - The arrest on Thursday of a
Malaysian cabinet minister on corruption charges marks
the second high-profile catch this week in Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi's anti-corruption crusade.
The arrests come at a time when the ruling
coalition is trying to convince Malaysians that it is
serious about wiping out graft ahead of a general
election expected in a few months, but some skeptics
believe many more heads have to roll.
Police and
Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) officers brought Land and
Cooperative Development Minister Kasitah Gaddam to the
Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, where he
faced two counts of corruption involving share
transactions.
Dozens who got wind of the news
flocked to the court premises. "It was packed inside the
court and there was an air of anticipation," a lawyer
who witnessed the proceedings said. "It was standing
room only and they had to bring in an extra bench to
provide additional seats for reporters. Everyone was
fighting for seats to see the minister."
Kasitah
pleaded not guilty to abusing his position in 1996 as
executive chairman of the Sabah Land Development Board
in taking part in the approval of a share transaction in
which he had an interest. He was also alleged to have
deceived the board by concealing a firm's offer of
shares in its proposal for listing on the Kuala Lumpur
Stock Exchange.
Kasitah, who is not as
high-profile as his other cabinet colleagues, was
granted bail of RM1 million (US$263,000). If found
guilty, he faces lengthy jail terms, fines or both.
On Monday, ACA officers and police
swooped down on another prominent personality, the
former head of the ailing state-owned steel giant,
Perwaja Steel. Eric Chia Eng Hock, who was hand-picked
by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, was charged the next
day with fraud - eight years after ACA investigations
first began (see Tycoon's arrest boosts corruption
crusade, February 11).
Abdullah raised public expectations by declaring
a war on corruption soon after he took over from
Mahathir last November. This week's arrests appear to
boost that campaign, although at the time, skeptics felt
he lacked the political base to introduce radical
reforms and wipe out money politics and corruption.
The boost to the ruling coalition arising from
Chia's arrest was also dampened by news on Wednesday
that an opposition politician was offered money to
defect to the ruling party, United Malays National
Organization. The independent web portal Malaysiakini
reported that a youth leader from the opposition Parti
Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) claimed that he had been
offered RM500,000 to switch camps.
In the run-up
to general elections, news outlets often publish
suspicious reports of mass defections of opposition
politicians to the ruling coalition, accompanied by
photographs of the defecting politicians handing in
their application forms.
Critics say the recent
high-profile arrests do not go high enough and they will
not be satisfied until the ikan jerong (sharks)
are arrested along with the ikan bilis
(anchovies).
Abdullah's onetime rival, jailed
ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, hit out from his prison
cell near Kuala Lumpur. "There has been no action taken
against the hugely corrupt, including cabinet ministers
who are involved in hundreds of millions of ringgit in
commissions on arms purchase deals and in share
allocations," he said in a statement.
Anwar, now
serving jail terms totaling 15 years, had lodged a
police report against Chia and Mahathir in 1999 over
their role in Perwaja, now saddled with RM11 billion
($2.9 billion) in losses.
Abdullah insists that
he is willing to go all the way in fighting corruption.
"Big or small, we will cast a net," he told visiting
regional editors. "I am not thinking about political
backlash at all because if we do, we will only get
frightened."
Opposition politician Lim Kit Siang
noted some similarities between Abdullah's and his
predecessor Mahathir's first 100 days in power.
"Although 22 years apart, both started with a bang in
the revamp of the civil service and the war against
corruption."
Lim noted that Abdullah needs "to
fully empower the Anti-Corruption Agency and the
attorney general to scrupulously follow the simple
anti-corruption principles enunciated by Mahathir 22
years ago, but never implemented".
Some also see
Kasitah's arrest as linked to the upcoming elections in
the northern Borneo state of Sabah across the South
China Sea. The term of the current state assembly
expires on April 12 and state elections must be held by
June 12.
Kasitah's arrest could thus provide a
boost for the ruling coalition's campaign in Sabah,
given the backdrop of graft and abuse of power in the
state.
"In the past 10 years, the ACA in Sabah
had initiated countless corruption investigations, as
the administration of every chief minister under the
two-year rotation system [among ruling-coalition
parties] seemed to have spawned an unique set and legacy
creating more misgovernment, abuse of power and even
corruption," observed Lim.
Some think Abdullah
has not yet netted the big fish. They say that Chia was,
after all, only prominent as a tycoon in the early 1990s
while Kasitah is an almost unknown cabinet minister.
Others feel that if the government is serious
about corruption, it has to introduce radical reforms to
the legal system and the judiciary and make the ACA more
independent. At present, the ACA comes under the prime
minister's department.
"One of the main things
Abdullah needs to do is to abolish the Official Secrets
Act," said Cynthia Gabriel, executive director of
human-rights group Suaram, pointing out that the
withholding of information has actually strengthened the
roots of corruption in society.
"While we laud
his moves to fight corruption, they must be accompanied
by the opening up of various other institutions and the
repeal of laws that facilitate the breeding of
corruption in society," Gabriel added.
(Inter
Press Service)
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