Transparency, trust and confidence

The recent raid on our anti-corruption commission or MACC, does seem to suggest that we have given up on transparent dealings. And quite frankly, the repercussions will be shown in all sectors and facets of Malaysia.

A loss of trust by Malaysians themselves in the government is growing and causing a political upheaval.

While the Merdeka Center believes the internal anger for Umno will fizzle out without proper leadership, Sinar Harian interviewed a local professor saying that the erosion of trust may lead our prime minister's own party delegates to a "quiet revolt".

Personally for me, while DAP wants to suddenly sit around a campfire with those voicing their lack of trust and confidence in this prime minister of ours and sing “kumbaya”, it is better to have multiple "campfires" in multiple locations if you want to burn down a forest.

Hopefully, the people of California forgive my analogy on this.

Considering the son of the Johor menteri besar from Umno is now raising questions on our prime minister's failed-to-disclose RM2.6 billion receipt of a Middle Eastern sourced donation is telling that the erosion of trust and confidence, and those rumours of an upcoming internal revolt, might just happen sooner than expected.

While politics is seen to be suffering this lack of trust and confidence, the economic side is one that everyone has to worry about.

There will be or already is (depending on which analyst you ask) an erosion of trust and confidence in any government linked company, regardless of how well they are doing.

We can clearly see this in the stock of Tenaga Nasional Bhd, though profitable, is seeing investors shy away out of caution from analysts.

Of course, the dropping price of commodities which we trade, being palm oil and petroleum, is also another factor.

There is also a blog out there which is now targeting CIMB, which may also affect the Bursa Malaysia even further.

Maybe whoever is paying the journalistic styled writing on the blog was unhappy with the traction the prime minister's own brother was gaining in his snark one-liners on Instagram.

Or maybe they're just jealous that the wrong son of Razak actually inherited the legendary business acumen.

More so, the same blog may also trigger a further downturn of our currency by undermining the world's trust in our central bank governor.

And that will be bad for everyone. A weaker ringgit will allow our export market to thrive as many will point out, but at the same time many forget that this will also effect our ability to purchase imported goods.

And while we may not all be currency analysts focusing on macroeconomics, Malaysians are not daft enough to not realise goods getting more expensive in shops.

This will include everything from food supply in the supermarket, machinery and spare parts for manufacturers, and even Birkin enthusiasts.

A certain former deputy prime minister clearly said that the Malaysian people are not stupid. I will add to that, the Malaysian people also have a limit to their naïveté.

The news covered the probe into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) very openly, and there was a shaky form of trust rebuilding with the appointment of a task force to investigate the dealings within it which was not for "personal gain" but happened anyways with not a single action taken thus far against the Malaysian prime minister to date.

This panel included the leaders of the central bank, the attorney-general, the head of MACC and the inspector-general of police.

Then suddenly out of the blue, three out of four on the panel are finding themselves either under attack or dismissed under dubious means.

Maybe there was a "kaki report" to the prime minister directly, maybe not. Who knows.

The former attorney-general got sick and had to be dismissed even without himself knowing it.

The head of the anti-corruption agency who went on leave finds his supposed comrade in the police, figuratively stabs him in the back by raiding and questioning his subordinates relentlessly.

And then, we have this earlier mentioned blog is ruining the image of our central bank governor who is an internationally recognised icon in the banking industry.

The gloves are off in this tussle of an embattled leader trying to keep his seat of power.

Yet, despite his latest publicity stunt of walking around KL Sentral to take paid for selfies with the general public, perhaps he notices that the public at large isn't buying it.

A lack of transparency will lead to a lack of trust and confidence of people in every institution in Malaysia, and this will lead to ramifications beyond just worrying about people having "too much food on the table", even if you did have two cakes from Secret Recipe for your birthday.

The question now should be how bad will it be till that horrible leader is convinced by anyone to just quit, claims his mandatory Tun-ship and leaves us in peace to pick up the pieces. – August 14, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.