BY: SRIDEVI SURYA

According to former Malaysian dictator, Mahathir Mohammad, during his second tenure as prime minister, he openly confessed that corruption was endemic and this is the actual reason for many of the ills facing the country.

In a quirky way, Mahathir should know better as he was the culprit who initiated corruption as Standard Operating Procedure which gave Malaysians the avenue and opportunity to get rich by way of corruption.

But is the trend of corruption reversible? Or has the nation gone so far deep and widespread into corruption that it has been incorporated into the Malaysian way of life which means that the rakyat has to suffer and bear with it all their lives?

The writing is on the wall. Under previous regimes, the international community viewed Malaysia as another rogue state and it just fell short of labelling this country as a failed state. But is the nation out of the woods or horribly lost forever?

It’s going to be a hard, protracted struggle for the unity government to rectify the situation. In fact, it looks nigh impossible, a hopeless cause and while there actually are people who have not succumbed to corruption, they don’t have the necessary support.

This is why it is actually up to each Malaysian individual to be honest with themselves and abstain from acts of corruption but still there is stubborn resistance by many people who feel it is a fast and easy way to being wealthy and successful. 

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher