Continue The Aggressive Campaign Against Corruption

 Continue The Aggressive Campaign Against Corruption

 

M. Bakri Musa

 

The seizure of Ilham Towers by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was a bold and much needed demonstration of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s continued crusade against corruption. Ilham Towers is owned by former longtime Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.

 

            Anwar should now be even more emboldened as the incoming Agung had also voiced his disgust with corruption. “I’m going to hunt all the corrupt people. I make sure I bring results,” he asserted. Then in a most unsubtle stab added, “Even those nearing 100 years.”

 

            There was once pride and reflected glory in having these few rich Malays. That has long ago evaporated with the ugly realization that their ill-gotten gains were but their plundering the rakyat’s assets.

 

            Malays should be intolerant of corrupt political leaders as their actions disproportionately impact us. Non-Malays have long ago learned not to depend on the government. Perversely many, including otherwise thinking Malays, criticize the Anwar government.

 

            Why now, they claimed, when those alleged crimes were committed years if not decades ago, implying the current moves are politically motivated. Those critics forget that those crooks were still in power then! Only a few years ago Daim was in Mahathir’s Advisory Group of Eminent Persons. Besides, Anwar came into power only in November 2022. Malaysian law does not have a statute of limitation with regards to criminal activities. That you committed them when your cronies were in power and thus protected is no excuse.

 

            This being Malaysia, any initiative could with minimal effort be distorted through the race prism and exploited. Hence the attempt to tar Anwar as anti-Malay. On the contrary, Malays should be grateful that he is going after corrupt leaders. The likes of Daim give our race a bad name.

 

            Unlike the earlier and more extensive One Malaysia Berhad (1MDB) corruption, this Ilham seizure was initiated through local efforts. IMDB was exposed when the United States Department of Justice filed its civil lawsuit in June 2016. That filing mentioned specific names and amounts. Former Prime Minister Najib was referred to, in deference to diplomatic protocol, as “Malaysian Official One.”

 

            This Ilham Towers’ seizure was not accompanied with much information. Had this happened in New York, the details would be uncovered. That it did not reveals the pathetic state of Malaysian journalism as well as the opaqueness of public transactions. In America one could surf the local County Tax Office website and uncover when the property was acquired and from whom, as well as the original price. It would not surprise me that the land was originally state-owned and “sold” to lucky Bumiputra Daim at substantial discount.

 

            We would also uncover who holds the mortgage. Daim may be super rich but even he could not have financed the property on his own. It would not surprise me if the note holder were to be one of the many Government-Linked Companies meant to help poor Malays.

 

            Apart from being Finance Minister during Mahathir’s long tenure as Prime Minister the first time around (1981-2003), Daim was also longtime Treasurer for the United Malay National Organization (UMNO). During Mahathir’s orgies of privatizations in the 1980s, those assets landed in the hands of anonymous UMNO nominees. When the party was declared illegal in 1988, hitherto wet-behind-the-ears “Daim’s golden boys” suddenly became instant major corporate players. Today however, the Halim Saads and Tajuddin Ramlis are suing Daim and Mahathir claiming to have been coerced!

 

            Mahathir is responsible for Malaysia’ current entrenched corruption. If that is not destructive enough, he had in his second coming (mercifully brief) also cursed the nation with its present culture of endless political intrigue that saw her having five Prime Ministers from 2018 to 2022, one fewer than the six she had had since independence up till 2018. 

 

            Daim is one of the dozen ultra-rich Malaysians whose names appeared in the infamous 2021 Pandora Papers. That list is instructive. While there are many more American billionaires, few appeared on that list. The reason? Americans are taxed on their global assets and income; Malaysians only on their domestic, a definite incentive for them to invest and stash their wealth abroad, quite apart from the secrecy. As Finance Minister, Daim should have stopped that; instead he exploited that provision.

 

            The Pandora Papers also listed two of Anwar’s current ministers; Ahmad Zahid, Deputy Prime Minister, and Tengku Zafrul Aziz, a senior minister. Anwar’s tough job of combating corruption is just beginning.

 

            Daim qualified as a lawyer in the 1960s when there were few Malay professionals. Meaning, he had (or should have had) minimal competition. Despite that, his private legal practice was short-lived, later opting briefly for a lowly magistrate position before entering the business world. His first venture, salt making, failed. His big break came when he secured state land in Klang Valley from his friend and fellow UMNO operative Harun Idris, then Chief Minister of Selangor. Harun was later convicted for corruption in an unrelated case.

            

            When I related these and other details in my 1999 book, The Malay Dilemma Revisited:  Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia, Daim wrote to me complaining that I had portrayed him unfairly. I replied that if he could prove me wrong in the facts that I had cited, then I would publicly retract them and apologize. Never heard back from him! As for fairness, like beauty, it is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

            I hope the incoming Agung would go beyond politicians to include immoral muftis who pilfer zakat (religious tithe) funds for their children’s education, and sly sultans whose private businesses escape strict scrutiny.