Awang Selamat
In an article published a day after the Sarawak polls, Utusan Malaysia's Awang Selamat was of the opinion that greater appreciation should be given to those who supported the BN and as such, a clear message has to be delivered to the Chinese community for rejecting the BN and supporting the DAP.
According to Awang, the state Barisan Nasional government should no longer be too generous in allocating representation in government to the Chinese community.
Awang further opines in his piece that there is now a new reality – that the BN needs to ignore the Chinese and instead focus on the other communities.
What a load of nonsense.
It seems that Awang has conveniently forgotten that it was the Chinese community that overwhelmingly supported the BN in 1999 when over half the Malay vote went to the opposition.
On the back of Anwar's Reformasi movement, the Malay vote swung mainly to PAS and it was Chinese support that dragged BN across the finish line with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
I do not recall anyone from Utusan Malaysia calling for BN to stop being too generous in allocating government positions to the Malay community after the 1999 General Elections.
I do not recall anyone from Utusan Malaysia at that time calling for the BN government to ignore the Malays and instead focus on the Chinese and Indian communities.
A government is bound to serve every citizen – even those who did not vote for it.
As Larry Flynt once said, "Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper."
A government cannot collect income tax from everyone but ignore the interests of the taxpayer that did not vote for it.
The taxpayer that did not vote for the government is not a traitor. He is as much a patriot as the next guy who did.
In fact, the taxpayer that voted for the opposition keeps the government on its toes. He ensures that the government does not rest on its laurels.
Without a credible challenge against the BN government in Sarawak, there would not have been any pressure on Taib Mahmud. The Chief Minister would not have even bothered offering to step down despite being in power longer than Hosni Mubarak.
If the Egyptian experience is anything to go by, we ought to be thankful that this was achieved through the ballot box.
Without the 2,505 Ba'Kelalan voters that cast their votes to give Baru Bian victory, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak would not have such a strong voice fighting for their native customary rights within the State Assembly.
A total of 672,667 votes were cast in Sarawak last Saturday.
With a total of 372,379 or 54.5 per cent of the popular vote, the BN obtained 55 seats.
The opposition earned 300,288 votes which gave them 12 seats for 45.5% of the popular vote.
The 45.5% of voters in Sarawak that rejected the BN threw their lot behind the opposition whose message mainly centred on endemic corruption in the state, Taib Mahmud's never-ending tenure as Chief Minister and the impounding of bibles.
The new reality of Sarawak politics is this.
The people will not keep quiet when a leader hangs on to power for too long. George Chan's defeat in Piasau is a good example.
Religious freedoms are important and any attempt to circumscribe them will cause the loss of votes. The fact that the BN government ordered for the release of the Bibles in Sarawak and hurriedly issued the 10-point solution on the eve of the election shows that this is true.
The success of native customary rights lawyers Baru Bian and See Chee How shows that Sarawakians will no longer keep silent in the face of their native customary rights being dissipated by big industry.
Instead of marginalizing those that voted against the government, the BN should reach out to voters that voted against it and consider their grouses whether or not they are Chinese, Dayak or Iban.
It is the demands of these voters that keep the government honest.
It is these voters that have changed the landscape of Sarawak politics forever.
Most importantly for the BN, one day it may need the votes of these voters – just like it did in 1999.
In less than a fortnight of its formation, the joint committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill is falling apart. Even as civil society representatives Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan are battling attacks on their integrity, another civil society leading light, Justice NSantosh Hegde, is thinking of quitting the panel. Stung by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh's references to his ineffectuality in dealing with corruption in Karnataka, Hegde, who is the Karnataka Lokayukta, told TOI: "I'm angry and hurt. I came to know through the media thatDigvijay Singh said I was trying to protect Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa on corruption charges. I've tried to be honest in my entire career."
He said he was reconsidering his decision to join the committee, but would take a final decision on Saturday after meeting the other civil society activists. He said there was a concerted campaign to discredit the civil society members of the joint committee. It would appear he was not prepared to face up to the campaign.
While Hegde seemed to be wilting under the pressure, Anna Hazare himself appeared to be distancing himself from the controversy. He was heard saying on TV that he had nothing to do with the Bhushans.
Hegde said, "There is a concerted effort to scuttle the Lokpal Bill, which has been pending for 42 years. It's something like former CM HD Kumaraswamy giving me suo motu powers for prosecution but governor Rameshwar Thakur declining sanction. Politicians do not like their conduct to be examined."
He added, "I am apolitical and committee members from civil society don't belong to any political party. First, they targeted Anna Hazare. When that did not stick, their focus has been on Shanti Bhushan. While Arvind Kejriwal was too smart for them, I am their latest target."
Clarifying that he did not want to go into the CD controversy relating to the Bhushans, Hegde said the smear campaign was only designed to nix the formulation of a strong anti-corruption law against politicians and bureaucrats.
"Our concern should not be about how good or bad Shanti Bhushan is but how good or bad the proposed Lokpal Bill will be. The legislation has nothing to do with any panel member's conduct. It aims to create an institution," he said
"Ek Anna Hazare se hazaron Anna?" The arrest of five top corporate executives, including a managing director in the 2G spectrum scam on Wednesday, is a shameful statement of the corporate sector’s role in the systemic corruption sweeping India. It also points to the need for a new set of upright corporate leaders set in Anna Hazare’s character mould to resurrect the corporate world from its dark values.
Till now, the corporate sector has got away by pretending to be a victim of corruption and lack of governance. Companies habitually hold seminars on how they deserve better governance. They weep that they are forced to pay bribes since that is the only way to get governments – both in states and at the Centre – to do their basic job of moving files and expediting applications/permissions. Wednesday’s arrests have exposed this falsehood forever.
The CBI chargesheet involving the arrests of Swan, Unitech and Reliance officials shows that these companies were in no way forced to pay bribes. Rather, allegations in the CAG report and the CBI chargesheet reveal that these companies had nothing pending with the government which was either delaying their business, increasing their costs, or causing their customers to suffer.
In the case of Unitech and Swan (DB Realty) you have a case of two real estate companies who had nothing whatsoever to do with telecom till the spectrum scam broke out on January 10, 2008. The CBI points out that these companies voluntarily (this was not forced on them) entered into a criminal conspiracy with the government driven purely by greed, to not only influence the decision on who could qualify for precious 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices, but in fact, even jump the queue to get priority access in a sector in which they had no prior exposure and for a resource they had never handled before.
Even in the case of Reliance, the CBI chargesheet does not show any indication of the company being forced to act under duress. It is clear that if proven guilty, this will not be a simple case of having to grease palms for a lack of alternative.
This is just the beginning. The second chargesheet is due soon and may have additional names. While no one is surprised about politicians being involved, it is critical that India Inc wakes up to the fact that it can no longer play the role of victim of the corruption menace.
Till now, the corporate sector has got away by pretending to be a victim of corruption and lack of governance. Companies habitually hold seminars on how they deserve better governance. They weep that they are forced to pay bribes since that is the only way to get governments – both in states and at the Centre – to do their basic job of moving files and expediting applications/permissions. Wednesday’s arrests have exposed this falsehood forever.
The CBI chargesheet involving the arrests of Swan, Unitech and Reliance officials shows that these companies were in no way forced to pay bribes. Rather, allegations in the CAG report and the CBI chargesheet reveal that these companies had nothing pending with the government which was either delaying their business, increasing their costs, or causing their customers to suffer.
In the case of Unitech and Swan (DB Realty) you have a case of two real estate companies who had nothing whatsoever to do with telecom till the spectrum scam broke out on January 10, 2008. The CBI points out that these companies voluntarily (this was not forced on them) entered into a criminal conspiracy with the government driven purely by greed, to not only influence the decision on who could qualify for precious 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices, but in fact, even jump the queue to get priority access in a sector in which they had no prior exposure and for a resource they had never handled before.
Even in the case of Reliance, the CBI chargesheet does not show any indication of the company being forced to act under duress. It is clear that if proven guilty, this will not be a simple case of having to grease palms for a lack of alternative.
This is just the beginning. The second chargesheet is due soon and may have additional names. While no one is surprised about politicians being involved, it is critical that India Inc wakes up to the fact that it can no longer play the role of victim of the corruption menace.
Those implicated in the 2G spectrum scam include not unknown SMEs, but India’s largest and most powerful corporates, which have been posturing about their values and attempting to be role models for others. They had every opportunity to keep their hands clean and avoid getting into this mess but chose not to. This is especially damning, since for every one company that went rogue, several other firms avoided taking this route.
This should be a wake-up call for India Inc. The corporate sector has to either voluntarily restrain its schizophrenic urges or be forced to curtail its hypocrisy. For starters, it should desist from shooting off letters to the government signed by top corporate honchos, seeking "better governance", considering that it is now an open secret that it is itself encouraging the sickness of graft for its own profit.
This should be a wake-up call for India Inc. The corporate sector has to either voluntarily restrain its schizophrenic urges or be forced to curtail its hypocrisy. For starters, it should desist from shooting off letters to the government signed by top corporate honchos, seeking "better governance", considering that it is now an open secret that it is itself encouraging the sickness of graft for its own profit.
Industry bodies like the CII and Ficci should seize the opportunity to lead corporate India on a correction course by taking specific steps to generate accountability. Top leadership should step up their investments in executive coaching and governance advisory services. Corporate India needs serious introspection, counselling from the best anti-corruption consultants in India and overseas to get a practical action plan in place which will help rebuild the people’s confidence.
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