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 ©New
Sunday Times (Used by permission)
by Tunku Abdul Aziz
WE are, as a nation, being let down on an almost daily basis by those entrusted
to look after our security, safety and general well-being and to protect our
country's reputation because of serious dereliction of duty, bordering on the
criminal.
Malaysia is blessed in that there is a law for every situation; you name it and
we have it all.
Tragically, the mountains of statutes have done nothing more than to earn for us
a reputation of being an over-regulated and an under-enforced country, with the
usual, predictable consequences.
In short, we have already become a first-rate country run, generally speaking,
by third-rate bureaucrats who make it impossible for Malaysia to be taken
seriously.
We have, at the same time, become a reactive, finger-pointing society whenever
the inevitable happens. Both on a personal as well as institutional level we
have developed our propensity for "blame thy neighbour" into a fine art form.
The tragedy is that we Malays have made a virtue of "if it be
the will of God" while forgetting, somewhat disingenuously, that in His infinite
wisdom, "God helps those who help themselves".
It is not unlike some Malays practising polygamy and claiming their rights under
Islam while ignoring the very strict injunctions and responsibility that their
religion demands of such undertakings.
I am also reminded of Malays enriching themselves by corrupt means and claiming
that it is rezeki yang diberi oleh Tuhan (loosely translated, "God's
bountiful blessings"). Who are they, they claim or we, for that matter, to
question His wisdom and beneficence?
What chance do we corruption-despising mortals have against those who believe
quite sincerely that God is really on their side?
Yielding to what we want to believe to be "the inevitable" comes easily to us
Malays because it takes responsibility out of our hands, and as a people, we are
predisposed to shift responsibility and apportion blame to others.
We find great emotional and psychological comfort when something goes wrong by
attributing it all to an act of God, or God's will.
We are from birth attuned to accepting the inevitable even though we, through
our criminal negligence, inefficiency or plain corrupt practice, allow what is
largely preventable, no pun intended, to spin out of control on our roads, on
the high seas and in the air.
The Mersing-Tioman ferry tra-gedy on Saturday, Oct 13, that claimed nine lives
is a case in point.
All levels of the leadership of the Ministry of Transport must accept personal
responsibility for the shambles we have seen translated, with regular monotony,
into a series of human tragedies.
Two Marine Department officers have been made scapegoats and suspended pending
investigation. If we think that is going to solve or transform the deeply
embedded culture of impunity, then we need to think again.
The performance of the ministry to date all points to a failure of leadership at
all levels.
I am prepared to put my reputation on the line and repeat that the systems in
place within the ministry have become dysfunctional and need a thorough
going-over, and the ministry a complete shake-up.
The quality of leadership must be improved through an ethics-centred selection
process, quite apart from considering a person's paper qualifications and
experience.
In public service, which is so prone to abuse of power, there is really no
substitute for high standards of personal ethical behaviour.
Members of the public should be spared the embarrassing spectacle of the
Minister of Transport spouting a litany of complaints against his own ministry,
pontificating on the evils of not complying with the laws by ferry or express
bus operators, as the case may be.
We were treated to similar performances in the past whenever lives were
sacrificed on our roads, which are among the best constructed on the planet.
We do not really need to know how many ferries and express coaches are operating
on our roads and on the seas without a licence and a certificate of fitness.
This is the sort of useless "information" diet that the long-suffering members
of the public are fed on whenever there is a major tragedy.
What is relevant to us is why the ministry has allowed this totally unacceptable
state of affairs to become its management centrepiece.
The implications of this public display of institutional paralysis and
incompetence for the nation's credibility are a great deal more serious than we
can imagine, quite apart from the more immediate negative impact on the
tourism-related earnings.
As if to highlight further its spate of rotten luck, we had an enterprising
Palestinian choose the nose wheel bay of a Singapore International Airlines
airplane bound for Singapore in which to experience the "service that even other
airlines talk about".
How the stowaway managed to breach the much self-promoted Kuala Lumpur
International Airport security systems remains a mystery to the ministry.
This one incident is enough to threaten KLIA's reputation as a secure airport. I
have never been particularly impressed with the personnel manning airport
services at KLIA compared with those I have come across at other airports on
every continent.
Closer to home, if Singapore is unpalatable, we have Hong Kong where the police,
immigration and customs officers on duty go about their work in a professional,
business-like way.
They look the part in their well-tailored uniforms and exude authority and are
taken extremely seriously because they make it clear with their body language
that they mean business. No slouching, no standing around aimlessly and no
leaning against pillars for them.
The security personnel checking your hand luggage in Hong Kong are very nearly
all petite young ladies who command respect and they get it. You simply do not
trifle with their instructions, for example, to remain behind the yellow line
while waiting to be attended to.
It is all to do with the training and professional supervision they receive.
It is nonsense to require immigration officers to behave like self-deprecating
restaurant waiters wearing a big smile for every visitor to Malaysia. Their job
is to exercise their authority to ensure that those entering our shores are bona
fide travellers.
Dare we hope that operational weaknesses are addressed immediately before more
lives are lost, and management structures, legal framework, rules and procedures
are revamped in keeping with our aspirations to First World status?
While we are about it, do remember that corruption could well be behind many of
our tragedies.
The writer is a former president of Transparency International Malaysia
and former Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Ethics.He
can be contacted at tunkua@gmail.com
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