BY: AKMAL AZIZ

Many Malaysians anticipated what would transpire in the drama at KLIA where a federal minister had to ‘rescue’ a female China national from the clutches of corrupt Immigration officials who sought a bribe from the woman.

There is now a bewildering array of versions on what actually took place and with law enforcement agencies investigating the matter it has gone into twists and turns in a saga that has caused the truth to be a casualty.

Malaysians are used to this convolution by government officials who often seek scapegoats rather than convict one of their kind for the crime of corruption which they feel will erode public confidence in them.

Meanwhile, numerous individuals and organizations have come out in full support of the risk taken by the federal minister to state that soliciting for bribes and corrupt acts and abuse of power and authority is common among immigration officials.

During his second tenure as prime minister, Mahathir Mohammad stated that corruption is endemic in government and the reason for this is because a deep state has evolved over the years where public officials look out for each other as they commit corruption.

Public officials within the framework of the deep state are responsible for widespread corruption which is now a way of service by them to dictate terms and conditions to locals and foreigners making the act of corruption Standard Operating Procedure.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

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