The Wisdom of Enquiry

Now the Government has agreed to give in to the calls of a Commission to enquire into the death of Teoh, the political secretary of a Selangor State Exco, it takes the heat off the backs of the powers that be, for the time being.

From what we have seen before, the Commission of Enquiry on the management and improvement of the Police Force and the one which enquired into the " Lingam Tapes" have not resolved the critical issues which were raised and proposed by them. Of what use is there for another one, to enquire into the standard operating procedures and the methods adopted by the Anti- Corruption Commission in performing it's investigations would be, is surely going to be asked in future.

What needs to be done perhaps is not to enquire into the workings of the newly revamped ( even though just in name and form ) but more to develop a competent leadership and high calibre personnel to perform it's arduous task. It's no use paying lip service to the vital importance of human capital, but taking no drastic action to get the right people to perform the job. Of late we have seen a plethora of publicity on the MACC, but none about the rate of success in getting the corrupt behind bars. The numbers of convictions as compared to those being charged should be their key performance index, amongst other things.

Perhaps the enquiry should be focussed upon measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of MACC in stamping out corruption and benchmark it against the ICAC in Hong Kong.