Organized Crime, Malaysia Style?

A Million Here ... A Million There - The Story of UMNO

LETTERS/SURAT, Malaysia Today

Monday, 15 February 2010 admin-s

Corruption is the single biggest threat to the survival of our country. Institutionalized corruption demoralizes, frustrates and will ultimately destroy the moral fiber of our people and then our country – if it has not already done so!

By steadyaku47

History tells us that the oppressed do sometimes admire the oppressor to the extent that given the opportunity they will become worse oppressors. This is now happening with the PDRM who have previously been at the beck and call of its Political Masters for many years. With the advent of money politics and the need to use PDRM as a political tool to manage the opposition, PDRM has now taken the persona of their UMNO masters and are now running neck to neck with their once political masters to see who could ruin our country quicker! It is happening within the various Ministries who are facilitating the institutionalization of corruption and enriching themselves in the process at the expense of the people.

We know that law enforcement, judicial and other legal avenues have failed us! I have yet to see a meaningful conviction by the MACC. The decision made by the Judiciary confirms its inability to deliver Justice resulting in social chaos as evident in their recent rulings on Perak and the Anwar Sodomy but at least the Judiciary has been consistent in its failures to gain acceptance and public trust in their deliberations!

The Federal Government of Malaysia and its many functionaries is a “racket”.

A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. The best known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes that the racketeers themselves instigate if unpaid (extortion).

Is this not what PDRM is doing? They deploy their own “thugs” through road blocks, patrol cars and any other manner possible to seek ways and means of demanding money from the Rakyat in exchange for their services - to “selesai” traffic infringements and other criminal transgressions – pocketing the proceeds themselves! Of course, their higher-ups handle the more lucrative side of things. Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi! (Dang! … My Malay is still OK lah!)

Is this not what the Immigration Department is doing? The Customs people are doing. JPJ is doing? The Bomba Department is doing … even the office boys in these Government Departments are part of this “racket”. To ensure that your letters do not go missing, you pay these office boys for their “services”. Back in my old MCKK days, we call this “double ration”… but our double ration consists of taking the biscuits of those who do not turn up for tea because they were out enjoying the wonders of our beloved Kuala Kangsar town on the weekends. No harm done!

Of course, UMNO Politicians of dubious ethics run a bigger racket. The “utilities racket” through the IPP agreements. The “toll racket” (when in KL my daily toll “contributions” is at least Ringgit $15 to use the highways in and around KL!). You pay more in tolls than in petrol even if you use a Kancil to travel from KL to Penang on the North South Highway! And yet these toll concessions companies still cry “poor”. Who owns these toll concessions companies? Surely these people are rogues and scoundrels of the highest order running a “racket” with the blessings of their UMNO political cronies. Why the hell are we paying taxes for? Is it not to pay for these utilities and facilities?

The quid pro quo exchange of donations or bribes for massive government contract makes up the “negotiated tender” rackets through EPU, JKR and almost anywhere else where they can “negotiate” the giving of any government contracts or any government business. This “racket” is in a class of its own and will require an entire section to do it justice. Suffice for now to say that Samy Vellu and the EPU ‘boys” are a happy and contented lot – but in defense of Samy Vellu, he did say “Kemaluan saya besar!”.

And then there are the spectacular racketeering scams done only by the political elites and their cronies – from the Prime Minister down! Denying the sovereign rights to their petroleum resources, and consequently the oil payments owed, with compound interest, to Trengganu and Kelantan - from which they have been illegally withheld. The Approved Permits rackets for imported cars. The massive commission payments “for services rendered” by their cronies in the sourcing of Government purchases and requirements. The building of roads, longkangs, swimming pools, street lights, pubic facilities to influence electorates in elections is truly the most despicable of racketeering as it holds the electorates to ransom for what is rightfully theirs – quite like the “protection” rackets offered by thugs on defenseless shopkeepers and small businesses … and as Yul Brynner said in “The King and I” … "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The Government is in the business of providing services for its Rakyat. It should not be in the business of demanding money from its Rakyat in order to provide these “services” and “protection”. In Malaysia, if the Rakyat does not pay in the form of bribes or “donations” – then applications are delayed, licenses are not given, people are arrested, thrown into jail or even murdered! These problems are allowed to happen and instigated by these UMNO-led political class specifically so that bribes and donations are required to be made by the Rakyat to overcome or solve these “problems”.

So I say the Federal Government is into “racketeering” big time”! - An art brilliantly mastered by the UMNO-led political class now running our country. Despite accusation of impropriety, their political careers continued – if not flourished. Hell, they may even get to become Prime Minister! Go ask Mahathir and Najib!