Corruption

The disappearance of papers from the Penang State Government building leads me to some very unsavoury conclusions.

If all had been well within the hallowed halls of government, the former state government should have left all in good order. It is one of the hallmarks of both good governance and good grace (though maybe this is where the other state ADUNs were when Lim Guan Eng was being sworn in as CM!). IF you have faith in your own abilities, there is no need to sabotage the new government - they will do a good enough job without your help.

But if you lack confidence in what you did, or worse still, if you deliberately misled, deceived or abused the public and their trust, you would want to hide the evidence.

Which is why it is a shame we don't seem to have great laws on corruption. Now, I'm no ACA expert, and I don't understand all the definitions of corruption - but it seems to me that it is possible that a contract could be legally granted, without pay-offs, bribes or other overt methods of corruption, without being in the public interest.

In the Philippines, they account for this. Alongside extensive definitions of what constitutes proper procedure for the awarding of contracts, freedom of information legislation and a comparatively free media, they include in their definition of corruption signing a contract or award that grossly or manifestly disadvantages the Government. I can think of whole swathes of contracts (privatisation awards in particular) which have this trait.

Until we can declare that such a contract - one that is grossly to OUR, the people's, disadvantage - is a sign of corruption, and therefore null and void, all our Governments seem to be likely to be locked into deals that prevent them from serving the public interest, and instead serving private purses.