The National Integrity Plan and Ravin Ponniah's insistence on framing corruption as a society-wide, 'multi-faceted', problem is a smoke screen. It obscures the fact that only the upper political echelon has the power to entrench themselves and perpetuate their corrupt practices. Diverting attention to the 'lower' strata is a waste of political will and, well, is like de-scaling a goldfish with a parang.

'Lower' strata issues must not distract anti-corruption authorities - not because this facet is unimportant but because corrupted corporate and individual practices are automatically weeded out by competition. None would last longer than an economic cycle - unless in cohort with those in political power.

Private corruption weeded out by fair competition is most obvious in export-related industries. This is the result of a high-level of economic discipline imposed by global competition and the inability of domestic vested interest to protect them.

In a factory, for example, a corrupt culture could entail the purchasing manager taking kickbacks for procuring supplies at above market price, the human resource head taking kickbacks for overpaying a bas kilang proprietor or a finance manager bribing bankers to finance a project.

If the factory owner is dumb enough to close an eye to these, he will lose his shirt as soon as the economic cycle goes down.

In another example of a non-export-oriented but competitive industry, a developer who bribes officials to approve a badly executed project would soon see his capital drained and the project stalled. By the next economic cycle, he would be a much poorer version of his former self.

In Malaysia, it is the service industries that are most shielded from foreign competition and nurtured on political connections. And it is here that we see persistent private corruption, high costs, high debts, and periodic implosions requiring rescue by tax money. Examples of various degrees include our banking, transport and telecom industries sectors as well as government suppliers and contractors.

Therefore, to clean out the private sector, Malaysia only has to enact a 'competition law', also known as an 'anti-monopoly', 'anti-collusion' or 'anti-trust' law. That law, if properly constructed, will ban political patronage.

Most of the 'facets' of Malaysian society do not need big brother to help them clean up after they have soiled themselves. Just ensure openness to the world and private sector competition, and the 'lower' strata (the small fish) will do most of their own cleaning.

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the media should take care of the special cases of powerful mafia and predatory corporate thieves (medium-sized fish).

Members of the political elite (the big fish), however, have none of this capacity for self- cleaning. They have no international competition, often face no contests within their own political parties, and are in charge of government machinery that thwarts fair election.

This is the reason I respond to Ravin Ponniah. We need to differentiate between the petty corruption perpetrators that will be automatically punished in the market place and the big fish that must face the chop.

Mainly it is the ministers and top bureaucrats who require the attention of a powerful ACA and to publicly declare their assets. To coin a locally flavoured analogy, a sick durian tree can't last a dry season but a banyan can strangle a majestic rain-tree unless we put our parang to good use.