Sunday 22 November 2009
Using high pay to ensure honest, clean govt won’t work
Is it possible to ensure an honest and clean government by paying high salaries? The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) asserted that a number of elected representatives were involved in taking bribes and commissions as well as misappropriating funds because their salaries and allowances were inadequate to meet their needs.
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Using high pay to ensure honest, clean govt won’t work
By LUO HAN ZHOU
20 November 2009
Is it possible to ensure an honest and clean government by paying high salaries? The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) asserted that a number of elected representatives were involved in taking bribes and commissions as well as misappropriating funds because their salaries and allowances were inadequate to meet their needs.
Hence, it argued that these representatives would naturally become ‘clean’ if their pay and allowances were increased so that their families are sufficiently provided for and living comfortably.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri Aziz rejected the MACC’s proposal flatly.
The latter said that with the economy still in bad shape and many people still jobless, it would not be wise to raise the allowances of elected representatives. Moreover, they also did not believe in the concept of using high pay to ensure an honest and clean government.
What is more noteworthy is that both Mr. Muhyiddin and Mr. Nazri did not think that our elected representatives are guilty of graft and embezzlement.
If there is no corruption, there is of course no need to increase pay - which would add to the burden of the national treasury. The two of them have the interests of the country and people in mind, don’t they?
In the last 50 years since independence, how many of our elected representatives (except those from Pakatan Rakyat) have been convicted of graft offences?
The most sensational corruption case involved former land and cooperative development minister Kasitah Gaddam, who was eventually acquitted by the court after a legal wrangle spanning four or five years.
Other elected representatives accused of graft did not even have to go to court because investigations conducted by the MACC showed that they had been wronged.
Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is one person who sticks to the old advice that paying high salaries will ensure a clean and honest government. As a result, the allowances of Singapore’s elected representatives are unmatched in the world.
This advice is suitable for Singapore only. Virtuous Malaysia has no need for it. There was a debate on this concept of using high pay to ensure integrity a few years ago. Our government refused to adopt it because firstly, our elected representatives were extremely honest. Secondly, it was possible that our government did not have the means to implement it. Thirdly, our government might have been afraid of incurring the displeasure of the people.
The MACC is bringing up this matter again probably because it thinks that our elected representatives are no longer as honest as before. Since it has not been able to produce any evidence of wrongdoing in the last 50 years, it is now proposing that they be paid higher allowances to spare itself of having to deal with a big problem.
Singapore’s example
Those who feel that high pay can ensure integrity like to use Singapore as an example. In reality, Singapore’s elected representatives are honest not solely because they are highly paid but mainly because of the high efficiency of its anti-corruption agency.
No matter how cunning the methods used, nothing will escape the eyes of the agency’s officers. In addition, the Singapore government has always been impartial and will punish all offenders regardless of their status. As such, Singapore’s elected representatives do not dare to defy the law. This is how the Singapore government came to be clean and honest.
Its high-pay policy is merely a supplementary factor. Does high pay really ensure integrity? It’s not necessarily true because being greedy is part of human nature.
Only a small minority can overcome it. What corrupt people seek is more than just enough money to spend. To them, the more money they have, the better.
The assets that they have amassed through corruption usually far exceed their needs. So, the most effective way to prevent corruption or the misuse of public funds by our elected representatives is to have an honest government which is determined to combat corruption.
The MACC will also have to raise its efficiency and maintain standards comparable to those achieved by the anti-corruption agencies of Singapore and Hong Kong.
It must not have the habit of letting the culprits get away scot-free due to inadequate evidence (as a result of poor evidence-gathering skills?) and the lack of witnesses.
This commentary was first published in Malaysia’s ‘Nanyang Siang Pau’ on Nov 17
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