For days on end now, the hurricane of news reports suggesting corruption at the highest level in our nation's administration has been a sort of novel phenomenon. Does it mean that a wind of change is in the air, and that our no-longer-new PM has finally opened the floodgate for investigative journalism aimed at uncovering corruption at all levels?

The phenomenon is new, because our national dailies are not known for exposing corruption in the past half century of independence.

The real reasons why our press people are so reluctant to play the role of a public watchdog are best known to themselves. The usual excuse of focusing on "constructive" and "positive" reportage in serving as a bridge between the government and the people, usually from the top down, is well known, but inane and unconvincing.

We outsiders can only speculate. The most influential papers in the various languages are owned directly by political parties of course. These political parties are controlled by politicians holding powerful positions in government and commerce. Many of these politicians are corrupt. This is a piece of public knowledge seldom acknowledged publicly.

As a rule of thumb for understanding politics, it is useful to remind oneself that politicians very very seldom act against their own interests. Therefore, those powerful politicians who wield immense control directly in the running of newspapers are not likely to look kindly on any editor or journalist who suddenly develops the foolish courage in exposing corruption in high places. The domino effect might boomerang back at the papers' political masters!

There is another possible reason of course. These giant dailies may be tabloid-sized, but their business enterprises are gargantuan. They pay their staff very well indeed. Talk of annual bonuses amounting to 8, 12 and even 14 months of already bloated monthly salary is enough to make most employees in other trades green with envy. One can actually build a lucrative career and even get a Datukship in journalism, if one plays one's cards right. People in the business, especially those in malaysiakini, know whom I am talking about.

Mesmerised and hypnotised by the coupling effect of the carrot and the stick, most editors and reporters just play along according to the rules of the game. The odd souls who actually have a working conscience turn away in disgust and start some form of honest journalism like malaysiakini. Obviously, Steven Gan is one fine example of such folly in spurning power and wealth. It goes to show that you need a small handful of foolish people in any society to make democracy work sometimes.

Again, it is mere speculation on my part, based very much on my own limited access to the core of power, and probably coloured by my sceptical prejudices about power and wealth. The real story may emerge only when a Wong Chun Wai or a Kadir Jasin decides to write their memoirs. I am not suggesting that they are part of the game. Rather I am expressing a hope that they will reveal for posterity the many hidden things that they know.

So, what makes the NST, an Umno paper, suddenly wake up from their deep slumber and start digging into the RM5 million farewell party for a top official? Could it be that they needed scoops like that to compete with the mighty Star? Did they get any hint from the Big Brother that they should help him eradicate corruption?

And how did they get the information anyway? Do they have a "deep throat" buried within the department concerned, a whistle-blower who has decided to leak the story either out of envy, resentment, or a sense of moral outrage?

For a few days afterwards, the story was picked up by all the papers, and given daily follow-up, without having the offending official identified publicly. That is a bit odd, an exposure of a ridiculously lavish farewell for a retiring official without the readers knowing who the culprit is. It sounds a little like rumour mongering.

Finally, the chap at the centre of the hurricane came forth and volunteered his identity. He denied all allegations naturally. The cynical can sneer at him for having bitten too many hot chillis. But then, a fair press ought to give equal time to two sides of the story, and this chap has every right to defend himself in public.

He claimed that he had been the victim of some subordinate officers who tried to smear his good name. He is probably referring to the squealer, the source who must have snitched to the press about something that is essentially intra-departmental. His underlings came to his rescue. Only RM220,000 have been allocated, and not RM5 million as reported.

Still, nearly a quarter of a million ringgits is a lot of money for saying goodbye to a long serving government officer, no matter how top ranking or distinguished he is. It is a sum that most hard-working wage-earning Malaysians can dream of. In the American clich, a watch would have been deemed sufficient for a token of appreciation.

There are the confessions of a lavish lifestyle, the rounds of golf, cigar smoking and karaoke sessions at luxurious resorts that accompany top-level meetings within the department, the sort of entertainment that one is more likely to associate with prosperous businessmen. Who says there is no money in government service?

After all, this is the department that collects over RM20 billion in a year for the government. It is a hell of a big till! We can surely guess at the temptation, the opportunity and the means for any officer within this department for a little bit of nest-feathering without untoward attention.

Malaysians who have anything to do with government departments and agencies for their business affairs would be more likely to believe in insinuation of corruption as reported by the press.

Ah, but I believe anybody is innocent until proven guilty. On this point, the poor official who is the centre of all this uncomfortable attention must feel like he in under unfair trial by the media. What he should do is to sue all the papers for defamation, and get a court injunction to shut everybody up. But as a civil servant, controversy and public attention is their scourge, and he probably hesitates about taking on the entire media in court. The court does have a strange way of acting at times. Meanwhile, a witch-hunt is on within his department - they would be too obsessed with shooting the messenger to deal honestly with the message.

The Finance Ministry is starting an internal investigation it seems. By the time the investigation is over and the report prepared, people would have forgotten the entire incident. The lame-duck Anti-Corruption Agency is pregnant with silence. Actually, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee is best placed to investigate the issue, even though it is overloaded with BN advantage.

The need for a thorough and fair investigation is not a witch hunt for corrupt official. Why, a credible investigation could even clear the name of the official concerned, so that he can retire with his reputation intact.

That government officials are still fumbling around the issue is testimony that we have yet to build effective institutions for the eradication of corruption. It is a symptom of our politico-social illness, and reflects our collective inability to get this pandemic corruption out of our system.

One swallow will not make a summer, just as an occasional downpour will not alleviate water woes in the Klang Valley.

Nevertheless, one gets the vague impression that the grid applied by the iron glove of the former PM on the media has now loosened somewhat. The latest expose could be an exceptional involuntary twitch of media interest in tearing apart the Batik Curtain erected by an all powerful bureaucracy. We should encourage them to do more of the same in the immediate future at least, and give them credit for it. Well done, NST! Well done, my old friend Kali!

The fence is erected to protect the padi, and when the fence devours the padi instead, it is time to tear it down and build new ones.

Here, we have to come to some kind of tentative conclusion. The whole incident, together with other incidents in the recent past, does show the potential of the press in exercising the power of a Fourth Estate. It could be the most effective instrument for the nurturing of transparency and good governance in public affair. The destiny of the whole nation could change in the process.

Could, but not yet. For the press to fulfil that destiny, some institutional reforms have to be in place. The laws will have to be overhauled to relax the legion of restrictions on press freedom. On the other hand, other press laws are needed to forbid the political ownership of the media, and the monopoly of the media industry by any one powerful politico-corporate group.

Given that politicians seldom act against their own interests, this is perhaps asking too much. We have yet to witness the emergence of a great statesman in our short history of independence.

We simply have to keep insisting on meaningful change, to rid our nation of rice eating fences.