PARDON the cynicism but we have been down this road before.

A big name or fish is nabbed for corruption, and there are celebratory hugs and the government of the day suddenly acquires overnight credentials as crusaders against graft.

But we have been down this road before, and there is a discernible pattern when the likes of Eric Chia, Ramli Yusof, Isa Samad, Ling Liong Sik, Chan Kong Choy and the rest of the expendables are charged or confronted with charges of corruption or abuse of power.

The action usually coincides with two periods: one of them is, just as a new leader takes office and feels the need to burnish his credentials as a reformer.

It happened just after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister in late 2003. 

Keenly aware that he needed to distance his style and government from that of his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he promised action to tackle the endemic corruption in the country.

To make Malaysians believe that he was willing to walk the talk, former Perwaja steel boss Chia was nabbed and charged with corruption.

Wow. The unthinkable had happened. A man synonymous with the failure of the iconic steel project and long considered a protected species finally had to face his day of reckoning.

The mainstream media went into overdrive and treated Abdullah as the saviour of Malaysia.

Guess what?

Long after Abdullah’s unprecedented mandate from Malaysians in 2004, Chia was acquitted. It wasn’t front-page news.

And, the expected gush of action against big-fish politicians, civil servants and corporate figures didn’t happen.

There was no major round-up of politicians living beyond their means. Zilch.

The Abdullah administration’s action against former commercial crime division chief Ramli for alleged corruption also ended in an acquittal.

But, governments the world over rarely worry about the end result of any drive against corruption. They hanker after headlines and the euphoria that follows the action.

They believe correctly that the public is often impressed by the shuffle of initial action and does not follow the case to its conclusion.

Politicians know that by the time the public realises that it has been taken for a ride, they would have ridden the goodwill of the act of nabbing a big fish to another electoral victory.

When Najib Razak became prime minister in 2009, he also promised to be tough on corruption.

Cleaning up the colossal mess called the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) presented a good opportunity to show his seriousness in tackling graft.

The authorities went after former MCA presidents Ling and Chan. Both were later acquitted. No one took the rap for the PKFZ losses.

What about the biggest elephant in the room, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)?

Has anyone in 1MDB been questioned at length, handcuffed and given a five-day remand, like Penang executive councillor Phee Boon Poh over a letter to halt action against an illegal factory?

The reality is clear. The expendables will be caught, paraded to all and sundry, perhaps charged and, in most cases, if not all, eventually acquitted if charged. – August 16, 2017.