ABDUL Hadi Awang’s attempt to blame the non-Malays for rampant corruption in this country shows his lack of knowledge about the root causes of corruption, said G25, a group of retired civil servants.

“The PAS president should have mentioned how money is used to make the political lobby job attractive to party officials.

“They are the real movers and shakers of corruption at the highest levels of government,” it said in a statement.

It added that the Marang MP had ignored the truth that the frontliners who acted as lobbyists for business owners to reach the top were members of the ruling party at federal or state level.

“The lobbyists go for whoever can offer them the best deal such as a success fee or a partnership in a non-Malay company.

“It is therefore not right to blame the non-Malays as the big players in the corruption scandals because as the expression goes, it takes two to tango,” added G25.

Last week Hadi courted controversy when he said that most perpetrators of corruption in Malaysia were non-Muslim and non-Bumiputera. He said only Muslims had integrity.

G25 said that some writers on the Malaysian political economy referred to the political lobbyists as “rent collectors”.

“They said that the lobbyists did not do any real work except to knock on the doors of ministers and get paid by their business principals for making the introductions.

“Foreign investors who were not familiar with Malaysian politics and the local decision-making process also made use of political lobbyists for high level contacts.

“Foreigners know that to get government business like the littoral combat ship contract, they have to get political lobbyists to do what is necessary including giving incentives to open doors for their clients at the highest levels.

“With so many ‘rent collectors’ to pay, the costs of corruption made government expenditures unnecessarily high for the country.”

G25 said Hadi, who believed that his party should be in the seat of power in Putrajaya, was being irresponsible to his own party for turning corruption into a racial issue because that would not go well with voters of all races.

“Indeed, his statement has caused distress among non-Malays that they are being made the scapegoat for institutional weaknesses that make it possible for corruption to spread like a cancer.”

It added that while petty corruption had gone down because of greater administrative efficiency, higher level corruption had been increasing at an alarming rate.

This was mainly because of the need for political funds to build a war chest for elections and also due to personal greed among politicians and civil servants.

“The spread of high-level corruption has no racial divide among givers and takers.

“Divisional party leaders of the political party in power are often at the forefront of high-level corruption.

“They make themselves available to become lobbyists to get approvals at the ministerial level.”

G25 said all this was possible because of the lack of transparency and accountability in the awarding of projects involving government purchases and procurements, and in the awarding of contracts.

“When ministers show that they have the power to make their own decisions, the political lobbyists will know who to bribe to get approvals.

“And the best lobbyists are those who are family friends and relatives of those in power.

“This ‘I scratch your back, you scratch my back’ syndrome applies to all races because money knows no race.” – August 22, 2022.