Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The toothless tiger

If I am not mistaken it was Tun Salleh Abas the former Lord President ( now known as Chief Justice ) aptly described the role of a Treasury representative on the Board of Bank Rakyat during the trial of the late Dato' Harun Idris who was then charged for corruption.

Today I saw on the news headline about the so-called new Commission to stamp out corruption with it's corterie of 'watchdog committees' to ensure that it's not a toothless tiger. Whether it can bite as much as it roars is much to be seen. But from my past recollection, it's rate of success in getting convictions was rather poor.

But from what I see in the newspapers, a lot of attention has been given to their new uniforms which looked rather more like the ones worn by dictatorial heads of some African countries. If these people who are going to catch the scoundrels who practice corruption start to admire each other's medals and their overhanging gold lanyards most of the times, then they could be fittingly be analagous to those toothless tigers. It's not the name or the uniforms that will do the trick of catching corrupt bums but diligence and hard work that requires patience, alertness and less conspicuous uniforms.

2 comments:

Bustaman said...

If the MACC is really given a free hand to its job "without fear or favour" then there is hope yet. Political will is needed to really combat corruption.

abdulhalimshah said...

Dear Pokku,
Very true,it's the lack of it which have been the greatest impediment to put the scoundrels behind bars.