Building a place called trust– Time to Talk Less and Do More

March 20, 2019

https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2019/03/471024/building-place-called-trust

 

by Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal Yusoff – March 19, 2019 @ 11:20pm

 

THERE is a little known place in the Scottish Hebridean islands in the United Kingdom called the Isle of Skye. It is said to have rugged and mountainous landscapes graced with deep lochs. No highrises, no discarded waste. The scarcely scattered white-washed cottages in this place show one how nature has ruled over human creation.

But beyond the physical attributes, there is something more to this isle than its landscape. It embodies the epitome of TRUST. One magazine wrote that on the corners where paths cross, there are ‘product boxes’ where people leave their homemade jams and free-range eggs. Passers-by come, take what they need and leave their payment. Doors in homes are left unlocked. One can leave cars there with the windows open, and the only thing that will enter is the rain.

This is called integrity. This is called good governance. This is what I envision for our country. This is what I pray that one day every nook and cranny of Malaysia will become and that we do not take what does not belong to us, and we guard and protect with all we have, what is given to us to honour.

The example of Isle of Skye is the basis upon which we approached the National Anti-Corruption Plan. It isn’t just a plan, as cynics and critics would say, plucked from the air. The goal of the Plan is to create a corruption-free society governed by the principles of integrity, accountability and transparency.

The focus of the Plan is clear — and that is to ensure every agency and ministry in the public sector institutionalizes good governance in every part of their work. Why focus on the public sector, one may ask? The answer is simple. If public governance is not strengthened first, we cannot move to ask others to put their houses in order.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched the Plan on Jan 29. It essentially identifies six key corruption-prone risk areas; political governance, public sector administration, public procurement, legal and judicial, law enforcement, and corporate governance.

Again, the process of ascertaining these was done through public surveys, interviews and research. We engaged many components of society — public and private sectors, civil society and the media. The Plan is an amalgamation of information we received from this work and on completion, we had independent anti-corruption specialists review our work.

I think it is important that we also understand why we had listed out the nature and points of corruption. A content analysis of about 20,000 reports received by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission from 2013 to 2018 found that more than 80 per cent were concerned with four causes; administrative failures (36.43 per cent), conflict of interest (33.12 per cent), weak internal control and non-compliance (18.97 per cent), and lack of transparency (6.45 per cent).

When we look at the areas prone to corruption from the same data we had, we found that the procurement sector recorded the highest number of complaints (42.8 per cent).

That’s why a special section in the Plan focuses on public procurement.

Beyond the Plan, our greatest challenge remains, as the government and people of Malaysia, our understanding of the roles of our government, private sector and public. I constantly argue that we have a somewhat warped view of this and frankly we are not alone here in Malaysia. To some, it is almost like watching the movie Matrix.

A lot of things in movies like Matrix are used as metaphors for our fixed views of ‘reality’. Rarely do we observe the world for what it is. It is much simpler to build a perceived order, load our preconceptions and baggage onto them to the point it simply becomes conducive and comfortable for us.

When we become fixated on a certain world view, and when that world view is simply wrong we open ourselves to the ramifications that come with living a lie, and that is exactly what we are going through today — the bite of reality of having condoned a culture of corruption for decades.

I often use the examples of nations such as Somalia, Zimbabwe and Myanmar which all have comparatively high CPI (Corruption Perception Index), coming in at 180, 160 and 132, respectively, to further demonstrate my point. Such positions within the CPI have ultimately left these countries in shambles economically, socially as well as politically.

Meanwhile, Malaysia ranks 61 within the index.  Admittedly, we are a far cry from achieving the corrupt-free status enjoyed by nations, such as Denmark, New Zealand and Finland, which rank 1, 2 and 3, respectively, on the index.

Attitudes and mindsets cannot be measured by Key Performance Indicators. They are intangibles.

The real engine to any delivery is mindset. Mindsets are defined by the culture we ultimately inculcate in this system. It is defined by the Isle of Skyes that we each develop in the little areas we are in charge of in our daily lives at work.

This culture has to be instilled, has to be imbued and built in every part of our society.

That is how we build a place called TRUST.

Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal Yusoff is the deputy director-general of the National Centre for Governance, Integrity & Anti-Corruption, Prime Minister’s Department

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A Traumatized Malaysian Press Feels its Way

August 15, 2018

by Mariam Mokhtar

http://www.asiasentinel.com

Three months after the voters showed the door to the Barisan Nasional, the coalition composed of Malaysia’s ethnic political parties, the media the parties have owned for decades appear at sea, uncertain if they have been unshackled from the parties that own them, unsure of their new freedom, as is the new government.

 

The papers include, among others, the English-language New Straits Times and the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia, owned by companies affiliated with the United Malays National Organization; and the English-language Star and the Chinese-language Nanyang Siang Pau owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association. The Malaysian Indian Congress also publishes local editions.

The attitudes of the mainstream editors and publishers are unknown and spokespersons ignored requests for interviews from Asia Sentinel.

“There have been no real changes except that the mainstream media have reverted to journalism 101, reporting and analyzing without prejudice,” said Jahabar Sadiq, the editor of the independent online Malaysian Insight. “There isn’t much pressure on any media by any side of the political divide.  It’s still early days for this government and the opposition is trying to find its feet.”

Reporters at press conferences seldom ask challenging or tough questions, as was true in the past. The mainstream press has largely turned to praising the policies and actions of the Pakatan Harapan government, as Sadiq noted, without a serious examination of the issues, of which there are plenty.

After decades of circumspection out of fear of dismissal and worse, journalists are reluctant to criticize issues which  dominate social media such as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s proposal for a new national car project, his dominance of Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the government, the repressive religious actions of the Department of Islamic Advancement of Malaysia (JAKIM).and government-linked companies (GLCs), most of which have been run by cronies of the previous government and which for years have lived off fat government contracts.

Malaysia’s Cartoonist, Zunar

In the run up to the May 9 general election, the mainstream media, on instruction from the Barisan and its leading party the United Malays National Organization would attack Mahathir, its fiercest critic. Now, they have switched their attack to former Prime Minister Najib, who faces corruption charges over 1MDB and other issues. In fact, Sadiq said, there are moves to take over the establishment media and bend it to favor the new government, as if the new government hasn’t quite got the idea of a free press right.

“Obviously we were heartened by the new government’s move to lift the travel ban and drop the pending sedition charges against cartoonist Zunar,” said Shawn Crispin, the Southeast Asia representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “And we were also encouraged by the government’s stated commitment to scrap Najib’s bogus ‘fake news’ law.”

Malaysiakini’s Duo, Premesh Chandran and Steven Gan

But, Crispin said, “until Mahathir’s administration follows through with that commitment and moves to scrap various other laws on the books used to intimidate and harass the press,  journalists will still be at risk. It should also drop the various charges pending against journalists, including those filed by the previous government against Malaysiakini.”

Mahathir’s government “promised a democratic revolution upon its election – there would be no more meaningful way to make good on that vow than by freeing the press,” he continued.

Some 35 laws remain on Malaysia’s books that restrict freedom of the press.  One of them is the infamous sedition statute, which was used against a long string of academics, journalists, opposition politicians and others.

 

And shockingly it was used again in July, two months after the long-suppressed opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition came to power, against Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, a lawyer with the Center to Combat Corruption and Colonialism, who questioned the power of the country’s nine sultans in a democracy. Fadiah was questioned by  the Police on July 10 for an hour. She claimed the right to remain silent and the case is hanging fire.  But the incident raises serious questions over the commitment of the new coalition to the right to free expression.

The alternative media, including the major online news portals, Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insight, continue to play their role as the conscience of the nation and try to present a balanced view to the public.

The Pakatan Harapan administration may have promised more press freedom, but unless reporters have more integrity and rise to the challenge of scrutinizing the new coalition\ by asking tough questions of its ministers, and their policies, little will change. They are easily fobbed off with remarks like “It’s Mahathir’s prerogative” to do as he pleases.

The election promise by the new government of increased press freedom has ostensibly been welcomed. At July’s Malaysian Press Night 2018 for the 2017 Malaysian Press Institute (MPI)-Petronas Journalism Awards, Foreign Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, urged the press to play a critical role in the nation’s political transition towards a mature democratic country.

Claiming that his government was more open and willing to embrace press freedom, he said: “Journalists do not have to worry about receiving calls from the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) or other ministers. In fact, it is okay to hold more debates. Hopefully, no editor will be summoned anymore just because some pictures are ‘not interesting enough’.

Few would disagree, but some believe that there has been little change. Some 35 laws remain on Malaysia’s books that could potentially limit press freedom.

Prior to the election, political appointees enjoyed prominent positions on mainstream editorial boards and few politicians felt any fear, even during press conferences, of serious exposes. Editorial boards still control what the public reads.

To the casual observer, the mainstream media has always been full of praise for the ruling party, but fiercely critical of the opposition. With new editorial guidelines under the new government, many hoped that things would change.

The people who doubt the critical role of the free, self-regulating press to expose acts of corruption, deaths in custody and illegal practices need to remind themselves that many of these horrors would never have been in the public domain, but for the few people who were prepared to write about them, publish the reports in the papers and demand that action be taken to help society’s most marginalized people.

In the past, the institutions and the key people involved would close ranks, silence criticism and turn a blind eye to public concerns. Those who made the reports and who dared to give a voice to victims, were threatened and charged with various trumped-up offences, to silence them. In some cases, they were killed to stop action being taken.

NST Editor quits over truth and 1MDB

June 4, 2016

by FMT Reporters

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com

Mustapha Kamil’s explanation highlighted by Kit Siang with challenge to other journalists

Mustapha Kamil’s online posting of why he resigned as group editor of the UMNO-controlled New Straits Times newspaper last month was highlighted by DAP leader Lim Kit Siang today, with an accompanying challenge to other Malaysian journalists.

In the posting, Mustapha (pic above) said he had left after a struggle with his conscience and the journalists’ code to seek the truth.

He said his decision came after the Wall Street Journal was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in April for its reporting on corruption allegations surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd – which he descibed indirectly as “an issue that happened right under my nose”.

Mustapha did not refer to the Journal by name, politely describing the financial daily as “an American newspaper, headquartered somewhere in Lower Manhattan in New York”.

His posting was highlighted by Kit Siang at his blog and in a press statement, Lim asked: “Are there no more journalists in the mainstream media in Malaysia to uphold the ‘truth discipline’ or who could search their conscience whether they are doing right by their nation, profession and future generations?”

Lim has been known to lambast Malaysian journalists, particularly editors, working in the politically-controlled press and often demanded that they leave the profession.

Picking up from Mustapha’s note, which has circulated on Facebook, Lim said the 1MDB affair had affected the reputation and standing of institutions such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the police, Auditor-General’s Office, the Public Accounts Committee and even Parliament itself.

Mustapha’s resignation was reported in May. Although confirming that he was leaving, he would not speak about his reasons. He ended his 26-year career with NST at the end of May.

Lim reproduced Mustapha’s note verbatim. It said:

“On the morning of April 25th I walked into the CEO’s room with my resignation letter in hand. We sat and talked about my wish for a good one hour where naturally, the CEO enquired why I had wanted to do so.

“The CEO is a chartered accountant, a man who took his job very seriously, one who is adept with numbers and besides heading the company, someone whom I also considered a friend…

“There were two things I related to him that morning. First, just as he, a chartered accountant, would not hesitate to qualify a set of flawed accounts, signing each of them not only by his name, but also by the ethics enshrined within the professional body in which he was a member, I too take journalism ethics seriously.

“In my line of work, there is this element called the ‘truth discipline’. It is one that requires a journalist to be correct, right from the spelling of names of persons or places, to all the reports he must file. His responsibility is first to the truth, by which he must then guide society in navigating the path they had chosen.

“Second, I told him that I had weighed the situation for as long as I could but when an American newspaper, headquartered somewhere in Lower Manhattan in New York, wrote a story that got nominated for the coveted Pullitzer Prize, about an issue that happened right under my nose, I began to seriously search my conscience and asked myself why was I in journalism in the first place.

In my line of work, there is this element called the ‘truth discipline’. It is one that requires a journalist to be correct, right from the spelling of names of persons or places, to all the reports he must file. His responsibility is first to the truth, by which he must then guide society in navigating the path they had chosen.

“Second, I told him that I had weighed the situation for as long as I could but when an American newspaper, headquartered somewhere in Lower Manhattan in New York, wrote a story that got nominated for the coveted Pullitzer Prize, about an issue that happened right under my nose, I began to seriously search my conscience and asked myself why was I in journalism in the first place.

“We had a cordial discussion that morning and the CEO fully understood my predicament and the fact that there was little else that I could do. In my 27 years of being a journalist, I never once subscribed to the saying that if you can’t beat them, join them.

“In this line of work, there is no such thing as the path of least resistance. You have to stick to your principles. Around the world, an average of 110 like us, pay the ultimate price each year to get the true stories out. At the very least, I felt that as a journalist, I had to honour the sacrifices they had made in abiding by the discipline.

I hope that answers everything.”

The Wall Street Journal was nominated for international reporting. However the Pulitzer Prize – the highest annual journalism award in the United States – went to Alissa J Rubin of the New York Times for her moving accounts from Afghanistan about Afghan women “forced to endure unspeakable cruelties”.

The Journal wrote about 1MDB in a series of reports between July and August last year. The prime minister, Najib Razak, and his supporters have accused the Journal of making false accusations and of being used by the anti-Najib campaign to force him out of office.

SEE ALSO:

WSJ gets Pulitzer nomination for ‘masterful’ 1MDB reporting

1MDB: WSJ report on billions missing an outright lie

Tan Sri Robert Kuok on Malaysia

September 30, 2015

Tan Sri Robert Kuok–An Extraordinary Man

THERE is a bit of a romantic streak in South-east Asia’s richest man, it seems.

Four decades ago, Tan Sri Robert Kuok decamped Malaysia for Hong Kong. The ostensible reason: lower taxes in Hong Kong. What some say: a fierce dislike of Malaysia’s controversial New Economic Policy favouring the bumiputeras and the resulting cronyism.

Whatever his reasons, Kuok says of the country in which he was born: “I haven’t lost my affection for Malaysia.”

In a telephone interview with The Straits Times on Tuesday, the tycoon elaborated on his donation of RM100mil to build Xiamen University’s first overseas campus in Salak Tinggi, Selangor.

The largess was announced last week during a lunch with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the latter visited Malaysia. “It is a gesture of appreciation. I only wish Malaysia well,” said Kuok.

The magnate is known for being averse to media interviews and had not granted one to the international media for 16 years, barring one to Bloomberg in January this year. He may have marked his 90th birthday on Sunday, but showed little signs of his age except for some impact on his hearing.

Asked about succession plans for his HK$300bil (RM123.8bil) conglomerate Kuok Group, Kuok firmly insisted that it was a “private matter – a family matter, a company matter”.

“I will not poke my nose into other families’ (businesses), and I hope they won’t poke their noses into mine,” he said.

It was an acerbic retort to a recent cover story by Hong Kong’s Chinese-language Next magazine, which speculated that five of Kuok’s eight children were jockeying to take over the helm.

Unlike peers such as Li Ka Shing, Kuok has yet to announce who will head his empire, which includes three listed enterprises – Kerry Properties encompassing the Shangri-La chain of hotels, the SCMP Group which runs the South China Morning Post and Singapore-listed Wilmar International, the world’s biggest processor of palm oil.

Further incurring his ire was the magazine’s allusion to an “open secret” that Kuok – who is twice married – has a third family in Shanghai.

“I (only) wish that journalists who write those articles can find me a third wife!” he said irritably. On whether he would take any legal action against the periodical, he said: “Those are filthy productions, and if you want me to dive into dirty drains (with them), I hope I’m not that stupid.”

Kuok was more forthcoming in talking about the ties that continue to bind him to his home country.

“Our family enjoyed relative success due to the benevolence of the host country where my parents settled,” he said. Immigrants from Fujian, they ran a shop in Johor Baru selling rice, sugar and flour.

When Kuok senior died in 1948, the then 25-year-old Robert established Kuok Brothers with his brother and other family members. Its success would eventually earn him the moniker “Sugar King”.

Kuok, who was educated at Raffles College where he was classmates with Lee Kuan Yew, later moved his base to Singapore. Tracing those years, he said: “We were minnows in the pond, then we entered the lake where we grew to five to 10 pounds.”

By 1960, he was trading sugar and rice with China, skilfully navigating any political turbulence. “Later, the ocean – Hong Kong and China – attracted my attention and so the fish could become even larger,” he said.

His focus today is on China’s economic development, “instead of interfering in the politics of China”, he said, in apparent allusion to critics who say he is too cosy with Beijing leadership.

Staff from the SCMP for instance, have complained that under Kuok ownership, the paper censors stories it thinks the Chinese government would not like.

But, he said, like the giant leather-backed turtles of Terengganu which return to the same sandy beaches every year to lay their eggs, he feels the primal tug of home.

“Roots are roots, except that my other root is the root of my parents – and that is China. I am twin-rooted.” Asked about the sense of discrimination among the Chinese in Malaysia, Kuok demurred, saying: “This will lead only to highly controversial statements, which is not good for anybody. One must never hurt those Chinese who are living in Malaysia, never be the cause of any kind of inter-racial hostility.

“We all feel it, but there may come a day, with the proper platform (do we then talk about it).”What’s most important is the timing.”And the present is not the right time? The man laughed: “Certainly not this morning, to a journalist!” – ANN/Straits Times

Published: Wednesday October 9, 2013 MYT 5:14:00 PM–Still relevant from a self-made man with vision, compassion and superb business acumen

The New Straits Times takes a swipe at Ms. CR.Brown

September 8, 2015

The New Straits Times takes a swipe at Ms.Clare Rewcastle-Brown

by John Berthelsen@www.asiasentinel.com

http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/malaysia-umno-mouthpiece-attacks-1mdb-critic/

Malaysia’s New Straits Times, owned by the country’s biggest political party, has launched an all-points broadside against the party’s most biting critic, in a front-page story accusing Clare Rewcastle-Brown of conspiring to “change the destiny of one country” to get rid of Prime Minister Najib Razak and offering to drink champagne when he goes.

According to the story, the NST, which is owned by the United Malays National Organization, obtained three months of WhatsApp conversations between Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the editor of The Sarawak Report,  Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat of the Edge Media Group and a Swiss national who obtained thousands of emails from Xavier Andre Justo from PetroSaudi, a Middle-Eastern oil exploration company with close connections to the state-backed 1Malaysia Development Bhd. investment fund,  which has fallen into a river of red ink from what appears to be vast mismanagement and crookedry.

Over the past several months, using Justo’s information and a wide range of other sources, Rewcastle Brown has printed a long series of damaging reports that alleged that Najib and Jho Taek Low, the young tycoon who was instrumental in setting up 1MDB, had spirited hundreds of millions of dollars out of the troubled fund into Jho Low’s own accounts and to other destinations.

Rewcastle-Brown also acknowledges that she played a role in feeding information to help the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times write equally devastating stories about Najib’s family property holdings in the United States and the fact that US$680 million was deposited in Najib’s personal account in AmBank in Kuala Lumpur from unknown sources in 2013.

In what can only be termed a startling reversal of reality, Najib and UMNO have made Rewcastle Brown the focus of a supposed attempt by shadowy foreign interests to wreck what they regard as a “democratically elected” government without identifying the foreign interests, although they have hinted that it could be the Israelis, trying to bring down a Muslim government.  In August, they succeeded in getting Interpol to temporarily issue a red notice that theoretically could have resulted in her arrest and extradition to Malaysia. The director of Interpol quickly put a stop to that, admonishing the Malaysian government indirectly for its action.

At the same time, people they have dismissed who apparently were drawing close to indicting him have included the deputy prime minister, the attorney general, the head of the police special branch intelligence unit, moved several members of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to neutralize them – one of whom told reporters on Sept. 7 that the Prime Minister’s Rosmah Mansor, was present at the meeting when he was told he would be moved. An investigation by the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament was short-stopped when several of its members were moved into the cabinet.

They have sought to keep the lid on via the state-owned press and suspended two newspapers of The Edge Group for three months after the newspapers printed detailed stories with documents showing the transfer of monies out of the 1MDB accounts. They have threatened opposition members and political reformers with charges of sedition.

Rewcastle Brown responded with a blast of her own, saying that “If the New Straits Times have been reading my WhatsApp messages to Xavier Justo they will know quite a lot of things, but not much new. They will know, for example that I do indeed think that the Prime Minister of Malaysia is managing a dangerous criminal regime, which has stolen billions from the public and then used some of it to buy an election win.” 

She accused the Kuala Lumpur-based daily of having “performed a classic job of selectively editing and distorting quotes in order to try and do a hatchet job on me. The problem is that I am not the person who has committed a crime. The people they are trying to protect by attacking me have committed the crime.”

She reserved her right to sue the newspaper over selective editing and other distortions of her conversations with Justo and the others.

In the WhatsApp messages, according to the NST, was one in which told Justo that she was changing the “destiny of one country” and that she would celebrate with a glass of champagne when “Najib is done,” to which Rewcastle-Brown responded that “as for their other front page allegation that I would toast Najib’s departure from government, I am happy to confirm that I will celebrate if Najib at last proves himself a gentleman and admits he no longer has the authority and credibility needed to govern his disillusioned party and country. This is because I am a journalist who has exposed many crimes under his watch, not because I am being paid as part of some ill-defined conspiracy to criticize an innocent man!”

Much of the story centered around Justo’s efforts, before he was arrested in Thailand, to obtain up to US$2 million from the Edge’s Tong and Ho in exchange for the documents. The story alleged that Rewcastle-Brown said she would help Justo raise and, then, launder the US$2 million. She first attempted to use SJS Ltd. in Singapore to channel the funds, working with her brother, SJS director Patrick Rewcastle.

On March 19, the NST said, she confirmed the commission for the transfer, stating: “The guy wants to charge my brother €67,000. I am sure he will do without cheating.” She later offered the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund as a channel for the US$2 million, writing on April 22: “He can pay Bruno Manser Fund if he likes.” She finally agreed to sell a stake in Sarawak Report to pay Justo.

Tong and Ho in July issued a statement saying they had misled Justo, telling him they would pay for the information and then reneging once they got their hands on the data because of the overriding public interest.

“The story is out,” Rewcastle Brown wrote. “Nothing that the NST can say against Sarawak Report or try to make Xavier Justo say from his prison cell makes any difference to the crimes that the world now knows have been committed and which are now being investigated in several countries.”