AS the former president of Transparency International Malaysia and a former member of MACC, I warmly welcome, like most Malaysians, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s clarion call for a reduction in bureaucracy and red tape in government at the MIGHT consultations yesterday.

There is no doubt in our minds that unnecessary red tape is a major cause of corruption. The more red tape and bureaucracy there is, the more corrupt givers have to pay to untie red tape. Corrupt receivers too like to introduce more red tape to get more bribes.

Both sides mutually gain, and so corruption thrives and has now sadly become part of Malaysian culture.

So prime minister, please go all out to minimise red tape and bureaucracy for the benefit of our beloved country. The rakyat will surely support your noble initiatives to cut red tape and thus combat corruption more strongly and effectively.

At the same time, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail boldly stated that about 4% of our GDP, or a reported sum of about a huge sum of RM212 billion, is lost every year due to corruption. This is a major national scandal and very few Malaysians realise we are losing so much that could benefit the underprivileged bottom and middle 40% of our population.

It’s no wonder that our economy, national budget, and debt are under severe strain because of this widespread corruption. We definitely cannot sustain our economic resilience and social stability if we do not take more drastic measures to stamp out corruption and promote more efficiency in the public and business sectors.

That is why all the present unproductive politicking has to cease forthwith. The rakyat expects government and opposition leaders to focus more on managing the economy better to reduce the cost of living and raise our standards of living and quality of life.

The DPM quite rightly wants to target for our corruption perception index to reach the 30th position from the present 62nd out of 180 countries covered by the CPI. This is great; but how can we do it?

There has to be a more convincing government plan to achieve this ambitious but most desirable target. Otherwise, public credibility and faith will be at stake.

Significantly, the able present president of TI-M, Akhbar Satar, announced yesterday that we scored only 47 out of 100 in the CPI rating for 2017. This bad score is depressingly below average. Our outspoken former trade minister Rafidah Aziz has also reflected the mood of the people by asking today in the press – where and when will it (fraud, deceit, and the kleptocracy) end? She vehemently added that “the Pakatan Harapan government must do all it can to do things differently”.

But what can the PH government do? The government can change bureaucratic procedures and policies and be consistent with the minister’s advice to reduce red tape. However, we have to ask ourselves: why do we have so much bureaucracy in the first place?

The national policy has unfortunately developed silently over many years to enlarge the public sector in the economy, even at the expense of the private sector. Once we reduce the public sector, we can cut down on the bloated numbers of the 1.6 million public service servants. Reducing the size of the public service will cut down red tape and bureaucracy, because there will less civil servants to tie up the economy with red tape.

Less bureaucracy will speed up business approvals, which can be seriously delayed because of the several levels of approval as insightfully pointed out by the prime minister.

Less red tape also enables the private sector to be less squeezed and crowded out. It will allow the private and business sectors more space to compete better.

Government-linked companies and related government bodies will have to be opened out to encourage more joint enterprises with closer collaborations from the domestic and foreign private sectors to develop more multiracial companies.

However, will the government have the courage to change policies to cut red tape? It may be more difficult to do so now, after government and conservative pressure groups decided to reject the ratification of the International Convention to Eradicate Racial Discrimination.

The prime minister’s clear announcement to reduce red tape and bureaucracy has struck the right note with most thinking Malaysians. It is therefore warmly welcomed generally.

However, there is need for strong political will and firm and sustained support from the majority of Malaysians in order to succeed.

Policies have to change more radically to improve the ecosystem and more effectively combat, curb, counter, and control the vicious and dangerous culture of corruption in Malaysia today.

But we cannot and should not depend on the government alone. It is the responsibility of all our people as well.

We can only hope and pray that we resolve for 2019 and beyond to rally around our prime minister’s sincere and serious appeal to reduce red tape, which will cut corruption too.

That should be Malaysia’s new year resolution – for Malaysians to join hands with the government to break the back of the culture of corruption that can strangulate our blessed Malaysian society.

* Ramon Navaratnam is the chairman of the Asli Centre of Public Policies. He also reads The Malaysian Insight.

* 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.