Tak Malu Ke? (Have We No Shame?)

 Tak Malu Ke? (Have We No Shame?)

The Tabung Haji Scandal

M. Bakri Musa

August 16, 2026

The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Tabung Haji (TH) released its long-awaited 280-page report, and my immediate reaction was visceral: Tak malu ke? (Have we no shame?)

Coming on the heels of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) debacle—where over RM50 billion vanished into thin air, and counting—the loss of RM13 billion at TH is not just another line item on our national ledger of plunder. It is a catastrophic assault on the sacred trust of millions of ordinary, devout Muslims who scrimped and saved, ringgit by ringgit, to fulfill their lifelong dream of performing the Haj. Unquantifiable in loss is the utter destruction of public confidence and the cheapening of our maruah (dignity).

The Illusion of Inquiries

As I read through the RCI’s findings, I was reminded of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, where his character Marlow observes that the object of an official inquiry is rarely the fundamental “why,” rather the superficial “how.”

The TH inquiry was conducted behind closed doors—and its findings were initially kept secret. Judging from the sanitized text of the report, the play of questions was, as Marlow put it, “no doubt as instructive as the tapping with a hammer on an iron box, were the object to find out what’s inside.” We tap on the outside of the box, admire the metalwork, and meticulously document the rust, all the while ignoring the rotting core inside. Consider that the Commissioners did not even question the Auditor-General at the time.

Prime Minister owes the public a duty to release the full transcript of the hearing.

A Tradition of Plunder

Corruption in Malaysia is not a recent innovation; it is an institution nurtured by successive generations of leadership. Virtually every past Prime Minister left behind a unique brand of financial rot.

The rare exceptions were Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn. When Tunku’s Minister of Education Rahman Talib failed to account for the missing RM100 million from his ministry in 1962, he was forced to resign. That was the Tunku’s benchmark for public accountability. When the Bank Rakyat scandal exploded soon after Hussein Onn succeeded Tun Razak, Hussein Onn—bless his soul— did not interfere with the case going to trial resulting in the imprisonment of Harun Idris He was a high-flying UMNO titan and another self-proclaimed wira bangsa (national hero).

Then came Mahathir Mohamad, whose trail of financial scandals could fill a library. Maminco, Perwaja Steel, and most lethal, Bank Bumiputra. That led directly to the brutal 1983 murder of Jalil Ibrahim, a principled young Malay banker investigating the bank's dirty books. Mahathir is still being venerated as the supreme architect of modern Malaysia.

Mahathir recalls with pride his famous 1981 “dawn raid” on the London Stock Exchange when his administration seized control of the British plantation giant Guthrie. He forgets that he gambled with precious public funds—money that could have built clean water systems, electrical grids, and decent classrooms for rural kampongs—just to acquire control of a sunset industry. Looking back, those colonial investors must have been quietly laughing all the way to the bank, delighted that Malaysia paid top dollar to buy them out of an aging asset.

The pattern continues unbroken. Abdullah Badawi was not too sleepy to oversee lucrative catering contracts to his brother via Malaysia Airlines, or to watch his son’s Scomi Group flourish on government-linked businesses. Likewise, his son-in-law suddenly became a successful “investment banker.” Najib Razak brought the art of state-sanctioned kleptocracy to its absolute zenith with 1MDB. Enough said. Ismail Sabri and Muhyiddin Yassin both face formidable charges of corruption soon after being kicked out of power.

Anwar Ibrahim currently leads the nation while maintaining Ahmad Zahid Hamidi—a political figure encumbered by dozens of corruption charges—as his Deputy. Appointing such a compromised character to high office signals to the world that ethical standards are entirely negotiable when political survival is on the line.

The Misplaced Triumph of GLCs

A major root cause of this systemic corruption in the obsession with Government-Linked Companies (GLCs). Privatize them! That would remove a major fountain of political patronage and corruption, as well as shield the taxpayer from endless, multi-billion-ringgit bailouts.

Canada did it with Petro-Canada, structured in stages so as not to disturb the market. Do likewise with Petronas. Aligning management incentives with real market values would force these institutions to operate on merit rather than political favor.

These GLCs also act as a sponge sucking up talented Malay professionals who would otherwise build real, competitive enterprises. We also stuffed these corporate boards with civil servants and political appointees who are, both by temperament and training, completely ill-suited to run dynamic corporate enterprises.

Before non-Malays indulge in self-righteous glee over the ineptitude of these Malay amateur corporate players, I remind them of the Malaysian Indian Congress Maika Holdings scandal in 1992. Then there was the Malaysian Chinese Association’s Deposit-Taking Cooperative (DTC) collapse in 1986. Corporate incompetence and greed are truly non-sectarian.

The Bankruptcy of Moral Preaching

I do not expect anything to change from this RCI Report. Zulkifli Al-Bakri, Religious Affairs Minister responsible for Tabung Haji during the period under scrutiny, will continue his sermonizing on the evils of corruption. This is the same character who as Religious Minister proudly showcased his son receiving zakat funds, intended for the poor, to finance his overseas college education. The cognitive dissonance is staggering. 

You cannot teach maruah. You either possess personal integrity and moral boundaries, or you do not. The greatest tragedy of modern Malaysia is not merely the billions lost to incompetence and greed—it is that our leadership class long ago lost its capacity to feel shame.

Excerpt from my Qur’an, Hadith, And Hikayat:  Exercises In Critical Thinking will resume next week.