THE Marzuki degree quandary has seen a flurry of interests and comments among certain political personalities – as well as the concerned and curious – over the time-tested value of integrity, which seems to have taken centre-stage lately in Malaysian politics.

Apart from Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Marzuki Yahya, other leaders, such as Johor Menteri Besar Osman Sapian, Perak executive councillor Paul Yong Choo Kiong, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and former prime minister Najib Razak have also come under heavy public scrutiny on suspicion that they possess dubious academic qualifications.

A number of people were falling over themselves in their quest to ascertain the validity of the politicians’ academic credentials.

Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, for one, waded in to assert that paper qualifications are less important than a politician’s integrity and credibility. After all, he added, there’s no requirement of academic credentials before one goes into active politics.

Najib, MCA president Wee Ka Siong and PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan also got into the act and questioned the integrity of the politicians concerned pertaining to their paper qualifications.

While concerned Malaysians should be troubled by the act of trying to pass a dubious academic qualification off as a genuine one, they should also take cognisant of the fact that there are also other equally, if not more, important issues that could bring about an erosion of integrity.

In other words, integrity of an individual politician or a collective of politicians can be compromised in more ways than one.

Integrity, as defined by no less than the Cambridge Dictionary, is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles in a person.

To be sure, it was the public outcry for substantive social and institutional reform and improved measure of integrity among politicians and political parties that brought Pakatan Harapan (PH) into power and at the same time, the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration was brought down to its knees by the weight of its corrupt practices, financial mismanagement, people’s economic hardship and transgression of human rights.

That is why, while Najib has been busy questioning the genuineness of paper qualifications of certain PH politicians, Malaysians should not be waylaid to the extent that they forget, let alone excuse, the immense financial problems that the country has inherited as a result of the 1MDB scandal triggered by his administration.

Similarly, we should also be concerned about the political misdemeanour of PH that can compromise its integrity and credibility in the eyes of the public.

This is especially so when PH is held to high standards of ethics and propriety.

For example, in the run-up to the forthcoming Semenyih by-election, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) complained that Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik, all of whom are Bersatu politicians, have made working visits to the state constituency over the past one week.

These visits smack of political campaigning as well as constitute the use of government machinery, thus compromising the high standards of ethics for free and fair election to which many Malaysians aspire.

Besides, the convergence of the Bersatu ministers in Semenyih is too much of a coincidence.

The test on the integrity of the collective PH, particularly Bersatu, is the extent to which the coalition is willing to abstain itself from using government machinery to woo voters in Semenyih.

Another case pertains to the understanding between Bersatu and Warisan that was forged prior to the last general election, that is, the former would not spread its wings in Sabah.

The gentlemen’s agreement must be honoured but unfortunately, there are signs that suggest that Bersatu is inclined to breach it, which doesn’t do any good to its integrity. 

The recent appointment of certain personalities from Bersatu in government-linked companies also raised an eyebrow as it constitutes political patronage, which is the very creature that PH politicians condemned when they were in political wilderness then.

Finally, Bersatu’s acceptance of the seven Umno defectors on Tuesday only reinforces suspicion that the party may eventually morph into a political party (i.e. Umno) it was supposed to have despised for the lack of integrity among its leadership.

Integrity is not just a nice word to be inserted in your electoral pledge. It is what you practise in real life and politics that becomes a good measure of your integrity and trustworthiness, which is important in our collective pursuit of a “New Malaysia”.

A lack of integrity among the current crop of politicians is as good as those of the bad old days. – February 14, 2019.