IN my recent reading on corruption, I came across an interesting social experiment with 669 university students in Bangalore, India, in 2012: the participating students were instructed to roll a six-sided die 42 times and record the outcome of each roll.

They were further informed that each would be paid in accordance with the sum of the numbers they had rolled.

Hypothetically, the odds of getting a sum of more than 170 in 42 rolls is one in 100.

Yet, more than a third of the students ended up reporting a total score of more than 170, six of whom were brazen enough to claim a full score, i.e., rolling a six 42 times.

Many of them have cheated. Researchers also found that the people with the higher scores were more likely to join the civil service.

When researchers in Denmark ran a virtually identical experiment with university students in Copenhagen, they obtained the opposite result: the lower the cheating rate, the higher the inclination for the participant to join civil service.

The findings in the experiments offer an explanation of the persistence of corruption: once government agencies start to abuse their power to perpetrate corruption, individuals who embrace or tolerate corrupt practices will fill the institutions.

Those who don’t will be squeezed out. Corruption attracts the corrupt.

I do not know how Malaysian students would fare should the above experiment be conducted in local universities. However, like most Malaysians, I think our students most probably would bear more resemblance with their Indian counterparts than the Danish.

As early as 2002, a study conducted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia reported that 30.5% of students would be open to accepting bribes if they had power and opportunity.

Another survey on students’ perception of corruption carried out by the Integrity Institute of Malaysia (IIM) in 2017 revealed that as many as one-third of local university students do not think that receiving a present in the form of money, goods or service in return for services rendered is a form of corruption, while one-in-five believe that it is fine to be directly involved in the process of appointing family members to fill vacancies in their department.

Inevitably, these individuals will bring their perceptions and attitude towards corruption into their workplace as they are being hired across the industries.

Within the government, the picture is even more worrying. If we plough through the annual reports published by the auditor-general across the years, it is hard to ignore the recurring issues: losses due to leakage, wastage, and improper payments.

In 2018, improper payments, leakage and wastage cost the taxpayer RM38.7 million, RM1.76 billion and RM6.74 million respectively.

On the other hand, issues involving irregular payments, loss of public funds and wastage amount to RM620 million in 2020.

So, when the scandal of share trading involving MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki was exposed, let us not forget that we have been living in a society which culturally and structurally tolerates and even embraces poor governance, no accountability, and corruption for decades.

As illustrated perfectly by the news of fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates, there are many among us who are more than willing to bribe our way through difficult or inconvenient situations in order to escape punishment or to “get things done”.

It takes two to tango, and our willingness to tango helps stabilise or even escalate the level of corruption in our country.

Just like the spread of an endemic disease, the spread of corruption in a society is dictated by its state of dynamic equilibrium, a result of complicated interactions among individuals of different interests in the society.

As the problem will never be eradicated, every person in society will one day be exposed to it.

What we could do, is to control it at a level that is low enough that the society does not suffer too much because of it.

More people need to be vaccinated against corrupt ideas and ideations. More people need to be advocating good practices, or SOP that curb corrupt practices.

Our system needs to be more efficient at identifying, tracking and exposing those who are corrupt and removing them from the system.

Perhaps then, can we shift the equilibrium to a level where those who are dishonest and corrupt are less aspired to run for office or join the civil service. – January 24, 2022.

* Chan Yit Fei is a founding member of Agora Society. He is a cellist and educator by profession, and a biotechnologist by training. He writes to learn and to think, and most importantly, to force himself to finish reading books that would otherwise not see much of the light of day.

* 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.