Letter of support and the Bazaar-gate

“The worst disease in the world today is corruption. And there is a cure: transparency.”

– Bono, U2

COMMENT | A number of readers have written in asking me what I thought about the whole ‘bazaar-gate’ and this controversy over letters of support. Something sticks in my craw when it comes to this issue. Besides demonstrating the “petty” corruption that is endemic to the system, it also illustrates the kind of corruption that slowly builds into something more over the long term.

When DAP’s Tan Kok Wai says something extremely dumb like this - “So are you (DBKL Licensing and Petty Traders Developmental Department director Anwar Mohd Zain) actually saying that the MP is more powerful than the mayor? – when attempting to defend the actions of Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun in issuing a letter of support, two points need to be made:

1. If the letter of support or any letter of support from an MP is not influential in any way, then why write such letters?

2. Considering the culture of bureaucratic corruption and connivance with the state, these letters, especially during the Umno regime, obviously meant something. The fact that elements in the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) consider such letters as influential should tell us something about the way how politicians and bureaucrats engage with one another.

Maybe if Pakatan Harapan had sent a memo that such letters should not be entertained, then perhaps, Tan could use this line of attack. Tan in defending his party member and laying the blame solely on DBKL is mendacious and the kind of political legerdemain that Harapan should not encourage.

In fact, what the DAP should be doing is conducting an independent investigation on Fong and make the results known to the rakyat. This, of course, should be in tandem with whatever investigations that the MACC does and whatever the state security apparatus is doing.

As to the question of letters of support, this is problematic. Politicians engaging in some form of corruption often do so with these so-called letters of support. However, the reality is that politicians who genuinely want to help their constituents also use letters of support when it comes to dealing with the bureaucracy.

Are letters of support done in good faith a bad thing? This depends if you believe that there should be a strict separation between the bureaucracy and political operatives. Real life is messy and there are as many examples of politicians engaging with the bureaucracy through letters of support which have helped the lives of people. But more often than not, letters of support, specifically in the former regime, were used to facilitate corruption.

When it comes to Fong (photo), my main issue is, why didn’t he do his due diligence? Look, when it comes to these traders, the culture of DBKL and the way how small business people are routinely preyed upon by the system, there is ample evidence that something stinks. Claiming that traders would not be charged is not an acceptable answer when issuing these letters of support. If the traders should be legitimately charged, then it should not be the job of the politicians to allow them to circumvent this regulation.

Fong is described as a “long-term” MP so surely, he would understand the kind of corrupt practices that goes on in the bureaucracy which Harapan claims it wants to reform. Now I’m not saying that there was anything mala fide in what Fong did, but it just seems so bizarre that someone of Fong’s experience does not think it queer that something could go wrong when it comes to political operatives, traders and the way DBKL...