My friend once told me a
riddle. He asked me, "Do you know who are going out from their home,
riding their bike or driving their car but don't even care to bring their IC,
driving licence and even their money?"
Do you know the answer? The answer is, a policeman! It is a joke of
course; based on true story.
Me myself had had an experience
facing such situation. My friend was driving his car while I am at his side. We
were at a junction and there was traffic light. The cars in front of us were
moving and we just followed the cars without realizing the light was red. I
still remembered, it was grey Proton Saga with Kedah plate numbers. It was
quite cloudy that day. Unfortunately, just after we turned to our right, there
was a road block and the policeman asked us to stop aside. I asked my friend,
"The traffic light was green or red when you turned?”, he said, "I
don't know; red maybe". ’Oh God'.
"Good morning sir, why do
you keep moving while the traffic light was red?", the policeman asked my
friend. "Hmm, we are really sorry sir, we aren't aware of the traffic
light. We are not familiar with this area." "Oh, stop giving me an
excuse, this is not the first time I heard that answer". But then he just
goes away to other car. We discussed what should we do? I told him to go out
and talk to him nicely or maybe he can excuse us. When my friend was out
approaching him, the policeman asked him to go inside the car and that was all
begun; sincere giving.
This is all true and I believe,
it is not only our story but most of drivers and motorcyclists outside there
have their own.
Based on research made by
Transparency International, an organization which focus on freeing people and
country from corruption, Malaysia was ranked 60 in 2011 out of 183 most corrupted
country in the world on scale from 10 which is very clean to 0 which is highly
corrupted and Malaysia have score of 4.3, and it is not a good news.
They admit, the figures are not
absolute levels of corruption since most of the corruption is hidden. If it is
transparent graft, we can catch them all and the problem is solved. The figures
are based on surveys and assessment produced by Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI), right, ‘perceptions'. What I can say is, the figures are not entirely
right, but it is not totally wrong also. If I asked you, do you think we live
in a corrupted country? I can say most of us will say yes and if I ask you
another question, which institution is highly affected by corruption? You have
the answer already.
The research stated that, the
most affected institution in Malaysia is police, secondly is political parties
and thirdly is parliament and legislature. That is why when some of us see a
car or motorcycle was stopped by policeman, they will said, ’cari makan'. Dear readers, these three
institutions are the most important institutions in Malaysia to ensure public
safety, country leadership, administration and justice and if the perception is
correct, what do you think the ‘rakyat and
our country's safety and future will look like? We are in the hand of corrupted
institution and it is not surprise that our country loss a massive amount of
money in Auditor General's report.
Recently, the government has
tabled an amendment of Road Transport Act in the parliament to increase the
maximum fine to RM2,000 from RM1,000 with the minimum fine is RM300. The first
time I heard the news, it just pop up in my mine, ‘’duit kopi pun bertambah'. Logically thinking, if you were
stopped and you been given options to pay minimum RM300 or you want to kawtim, what option will you
choose? With only RM30 or RM50
(depending on what car do you drive) and your problem is solved or you want to
pay the full fine amount and wasting your time in police station. I don't think
it is the wise way on punishing traffic offence. They should lower the fine,
not increase it. Laws are not made to punish, but to teach others what is the
effect if anybody disobeys it. Don't you think so?
This ‘sincere giving' does not only happen in police, but also happen in
other public and private sectors. If I can list it roughly; Custom,
Immigration, Department of Safety and Health (DOSH), Military, Judiciary,
Media, Education are institutions which are exposed to bribery. Even the
Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission is exposed more since they are the one who
deals with briber and receiver. You can imagine it by your own why do I list
those institutions are exposed to bribery. The government should pay serious
attention for institutions which are exposed to bribery closely besides
changing their department once in few years and tender open ceremony in public.
Those
who are found guilty and anyone been caught power misused and corrupted should
been fired and it is non-tolerable.
Not only in public sectors,
this virus also happened in private
sectors. In business, when people are desperately to win any tenders or
projects, this is where graft takes place. Your expertise and price sometime is
nothing if those who manage the bidding process do not get something beneficial
from the vendors. This is where a believe started, if you don't do it, someone
else will. Now you will realize, how corrupted our world right now not only
action but thinking.
How can we stop all of it?
Start if from your home. Stop giving something to our sibling or children in
order to ask them shut their mouth if we do something wrong. Nevertheless, I
still believe serious campaign can help reduce bribery. I still remember when a
student asked our Deputy Rector (Student Affair) about campaign which is to him
do not give any impact to student. He answered, "I know we can't see major
change but if we stop the campaign, things will get worse". I agree with
him. Sometimes, we need more than hundreds times to read the same campaign
before we really realize the light inside each word of the campaign.
Above all, religion is the key
of all problems. People intend to follow the wrongdoers when the action has
become a culture. When time goes by, any wrong action is assumed alright since
everybody does it. Make a clear explanation about bribery; what is bribery is
all about from smallest to biggest bribe. Convince people the sins behind it
and teach them, rezeqi is from the
Creator, not from the creations. There is no barakah in life from having such illegal money.
Believe it, bribery is not
solving any problem but transparency improves qualities and competitiveness.
Oh, I almost forget, we don't give any money to the policeman who stopped us
but we have him recorded. Maybe next time you can standby recorder in your car
in case you face such situation as I am. You know where you should precede the
records. May this small effort help diminish bribery as a start.
