IN the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve experienced a fall from grace, when they disobeyed the specific and direct instruction of God. They had sought the knowledge of good and evil. That fall from grace led to even more disobedience; including all kinds of lies, deceit, and manifest wrongdoing.

I call that degraded state a culture of CSL or Cheating, Stealing and Lying. Every culture is framed by a framing worldview. A worldview is a set of assumptions we hold dear in our lives.

A culture is then a community-based belief system premised upon those cultural assumptions. The members then choose to behave in a particular way because of that belief or assumption.

Behaviour is always an external observer’s view of any event. Scientists in organisational behaviour developed this field of science, when material science declared that all truth is knowable by scientific evidence.

Action theory proponents argue that social science cannot have such definitive answers, as behaviourists performed their experiments only with rats and dogs; which are lower animals then human beings.

Action is different from behaviour because humans apply reason and knowledge towards action, usually defined as an intention. Animals do not have any such intention for instinctive behaviour. Intention which leads to action is a uniquely human conduct.

Corruption is therefore a human disease like cancer, and it attacks all good cells and kills core cells or nuggets of good values.

What is evidence of corruption?

Corruption or corrupt conduct or action manifests itself in terms of the following, in every culture and all societies:

Bribery, or rasuah in Malay;

Denial of justice especially related to court rulings, or tidak ada keadilan;

Oppression including what we Malaysians call “rule by law” or penyelewengan dari undang undang yang tersurat dan tersirat;

Illegitimate wealth acquisition or makan dedak, a term made popular by TDM before GE14; and,

Dishonesty or simply cheating or lying or kurang bermaruah or berkewibawah.

Petty v large-scale corruption

I suspect Dr Mahathir Mohamad and others mobilised to bring down the corrupt Umno regime, not because of small scale or petty corruption, or what we have historically called “duit minum kopi”, but rather because the entire machinery of corruption had engulfed structurally and systemically all aspects of the nation-state apparatus of and for good governance.

Malaysian mainstream politics had become endemically corrupt as a culture and as a society. Therefore, and thereby, at the ripe old age of 93, he chose to first form his own new party, unlike Umno B, or Umno Baru, but Bersatu, using the bunga raya as a symbol and the word “pribumi” as the new starting point.

He then switched sides with the new vehicle and avowedly spoke about the full and complete intent of decimation of Umno Baru; albeit his own generation and creation by default. He did admit his mistakes, asked the people to forgive him, and chose to move on. The rakyat agreed to his proposition.

The three Pakatan Harapan allies agreed to admit Bersatu as the fourth member of the newly framed Hope Alliance or Coalition. This new alliance, by default, therefore include all other equally committed Malaysians who are focused on fighting systemic corruption of the entire Governance system of Malaysia.

I dare say this include 95% of all Christians in Malaysia, even if they only make up 9% of the population, based on published statistics. Christians East and West voted for the same agenda. We Malaysians now want to move on with this agenda in full force. – October 14, 2018.

* KJ John worked in public service for 32 years, retired, and started a civil group for which he is chairman of the board. He writes to inform and educate, arguing for integration with integrity in Malaysia. He believes such a transformation has to start with the mind before it sinks into the heart!

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.