The normally low-profile Anti-Corrution Agency made a rare appearance on the front page of a local newspaper on Wednesday as its chief, Ahmad Zaki Husin, engaged in a signing of an memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Road Transport Department counterpart, in the first of a series of "smart partnership agreements with government agencies to stamp out corruption" in the civil service.

The ACA director-general was quoted as saying that the RTD is one of the most exposed and susceptible to corruption "because they have a lot of counter dealings and cash handling." (New Straits Times, March 29) A very frank admission indeed, coming from the nation's top graft-buster.

Another branch of government that quickly comes to mind as "highly exposed and susceptible to corruption" must be the police force. It is a very common public perception, confirmed by this writer's quick straw poll, that "upwards of 90 percent" of our police force is corrupt. I concede that this is merely "public perception", but if the reality coincides with perception, which often does, then I'm afraid the ACA has a Herculean task ahead of it!

I stress the word "perception" here because "reality" can indeed be poles apart from "perception", as "form" is contrasted with "substance". But in confidence-building, perception is of the utmost importance, as any advertising or marketing expert will tell you.

To sell a product or service, if potential customers' perception is negative, then that product/service is a non-starter. So, not only is time, but public perception, is of the essence, whether in the commercial world or in the world of crime-busting!

In the latest ACA initiative, we hope that the form - represented by its MOU signing - would consequently materialise into substance, so that we can see more prosecutions, and higher conviction rates for corruption. If corruption in reality is indeed reduced at the RTD in the future, it would give rise to growing confidence to members of the public that the winds of change have really come with the expressed mission of the ACA chief.

May we hope to see the same determination to combat corruption among the police force?

When the brutally honest Zaki went on to state that "corruption was not a norm or a Malaysian culture but there were indications that it was becoming one", I did stop, pause and ponder. Here is someone at last looking at the problem in the eye, but...

But I'm sure many fellow Malaysians would think that Zaki's statement is also contentious - many would argue that in Malaysia, corruption has indeed become a norm, or to borrow a phrase in a negative sense, "we have arrived".

Whatever the reality, it's a bold admission for the ACA chief to make, recognising that the indications are not too favourable for the country. Does this imply that we can expect that efforts, greater and more efforts - maybe even Herculean ones - would be now mounted to fight corruption in all spheres of public service and the private sector.

According to a global survey by anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, Malaysia is perceived as among the top one-third (just breezed through) performers in terms of perceived corruption prevalent among public and politicians.

However, more disturbing is that Malaysians were among the top 20 percent of 19 countries surveyed in the propensity to paying bribes abroad (committed by the private sector).

So where do we start in this fight against corruption, or achieve higher transparency in both government and corporate dealings?

I think it's timely to resurrect here the point about implementing a minimum wage for the country's workforce.

I remember as a reporter some 25 years back, I had raised this issue with then Labour Minister Lee San Choon during a visit to Penang. Things hardly progressed through the years, but at least the Prime Minister had in principle supported the idea, quoting a figure of RM1,200 per month.

Indeed, this should be implemented promptly, for it's easy to understand why members of the police force, especially the lowest ranks at constable level, can easily succumb to a RM300 bribe, which I believe, is about equivalent to half their monthly salary.

It is "indecent" that families have to cope on a meagre RM600, especially in expensive centres like Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya where a room's rental alone can swallow up RM200 to RM600! (Of course, this is peanuts compared to the "vulgar" entertainment expense amounting to several thousand ringgit in one nightclub outing for the corporate chieftains.)

I'm not here to condone corruption. I'm stating a case that workers must be given a decent living wage to survive, then they have greater resistance to say "no" to bribery.

I'm afraid to say in reality, most Malaysians are quite a sceptical lot. Since the Bank Bumiputra Finance scandal in Hong Kong in the 1980s, when the government had to bail out the banking group by some RM2.4 billion (no thanks to George Tan and his infamous Carrian group), we saw two subsequent bailouts of the same bank, also running into billions, yet no "big shots" at the bank were prosecuted and convicted.

Again, before the financial crisis hit the country in mid-1997, a certain 27-year-old "tycoon" won rave coverage in the local press for winning control of at least four public listed companies in a matter of a few months, with the help of billion-ringgit facilities extended by financial institutions.

Instead of asking questions as to how a young turk could amass such means or clout to buy the stocks, the newspapers frontpaged glowing reports of his "hard work, capabilities and with a little help from his father's friends" for his achievements, fantastic by any standards!.

Yes, certain hands in Malaysia were supposed to have the Midas touch, I hope not too many will follow!

Incidentally, one of this still young, ertswhile billionaire's business associates, a certain Datuk So-and-so, is still running away from the short arm of Malaysian law...another episode to reflect on how serious our authorities in chasing after those on the "Wanted" list.

Where in Malaysia are we preaching and practising the ethos of working "Blood, Sweat and Tears" that blue-blooded businessmen and entrepreneurs worldwide lived up to in order to build their own fortunes, over decades, or consolidate their family empires, over several generations?

"Rome was not built in a day" is definitely not a lesson the young, former billionaire has learnt in school; I hear now he's still licking his wounds from the 1997 stock-market crash..

In Malaysia, I think scandals like the BMF and the instant billionaire don't instill much confidence, do they? These happenings did not and and will never earn high marks for our country's transparency record in the international arena.

However, on a more optimistic note, I'd like to recount the tale of former Bank Negara governor, the late Tun Ismail Ali, who as the chief at Permodalan Nasional Berhad, was a living icon of a practitioner of transparency and accountability. It is told that whenever he went for private functions, Ismail always insisted on using his own private car, not the official limousine he was entitled to as PNB head.

Where have such gems gone? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind...