BY: CHRISTOPHER FERNANDEZ

Whenever the subject or topic of corruption is raised in this country, fingers go pointing in all directions with not just a lot but numerous accusations and allegations of corruption made towards others except themselves.

It is perhaps this holier than thou attitude, this specious belief that everyone is engaged in corruption except me that is the root of the problem why corruption is so widespread in this country.

For those who are blatantly and obviously corrupt, they should come clean because it is this sheer hypocrisy that is causing the combat against corruption to get nowhere in Malaysia and to make life difficult for graft busters.

Unfortunately, unlike squeaky clean countries where there is hardly any corruption, every segment and every sphere of Malaysian society is deeply embedded in corruption and in government it has come to be accepted as the norm.

The glaring truth is that corruption in the civil service has become Standard Operating Procedure from the inception of Merdeka or Independence from the British colonialists in 1957 and has since festered and maligned the nation.

This is why there are a growing number of decent, right and proper Malaysians who have thrown their arms up in despair and given up hope of corruption being gotten rid off in this country or at least to be brought under control.

But it is this truth, the fact of the matter, that in most cases whole government departments are corrupt and this is why Malaysia has become among the sick countries of the world where corruption appears to have upstaged life itself.

If anyone wants to know how bad corruption is and does not believe the findings of independent authorities and organizations who collate and formulate data on corruption, they should get down to the ground realities.

By playing sleuth, going undercover or being a detective, a Malaysian can find out for themselves how rampant and widespread corruption is with even law enforcement agencies not spared from being corrupt.

But there are those with bright ideas who have suggested that a period of amnesty be given to the corrupt to return all their ill gotten gains in order not to be convicted and for the country to start all over again on a clean slate.

If, after the period of amnesty is over, the corrupt have not handed over the spoils of corruption, they should then be brought to book and convicted for corruption. This seems like the most logical way out of corruption for Malaysia.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

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