13 September 2005

I Hate Corruption

"Corruption - defined as 'the abuse of public power for personal ends' - has always existed. During recent decades, however, it has grown both in terms of geographic extent and intensity. Since the mid 1970s, it has infiltrated virtually every country in the world." - Euforic.org




A recent survey (I forgot the source) noted that many youngsters in Malaysia were willing to take and give bribes.

Initially the term “corruption” was a taboo subject in international development circles. This was broken when James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank (1995-2005) gave his groundbreaking "cancer of corruption" speech to the World Bank/IMF annual meeting in 1996. He cited corruption as a major burden for the poor in developing countries. - World Bank

I hate corruption in any form. It is unethical, haram, disgusting, (you can add more here...).

Why do I think so? Well, corruption:

1. Increases the cost of doing business
2. Puts more pressure on poor people
4. Deters foreign investment
5. Delays/ distorts justice
6. Inefficient, ineffective, unsuitable people are chosen over others more deserving.

I am sure you all can come up with more...

Look at the following cases and decide whether these are forms of corruption:
(Imagine that you are the customer/ decision maker)

1. Company representative offers you a RM10,000 cut if your organisation decides to buy the computers from them.
2. Company representative offers you a laptop/ latest mobile phone/ palm top if your organisation decides to buy the computers from them.
3. Company representative requests you to join them for some drinks at this great Karaoke club (GROs to give you company. Hint! Hint!) during the evening.
4. Company sends you a gift hamper during Hari Raya/ Chinese new year/ Diwali.

On the other hand, you did not take any money/gifts during the selection process and selected the candidates purely out of merit.

To show their gratitude, the lucky successful candidates arrive at your home / office bearing gifts. Is it OK to accept the gifts?

BTW, I am really sad to learn that Malaysia’s World ranking in competitiveness and efficiency fell from 16th to the 28th place last year, based on the report by the World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland.

4 comments:

Jack Golf Addix said...

dont be sad abt me. msians are good in doing just that. we look good but are we that good enuf. that twin tower , for eg , do u know how money sweat some have to sacrifice for the govt. those work hard for it and look around they spend billions saving glc's and mas.

I cant wait for new malaysia in 2008...

saurav said...

corruption is more malignant than any disease...but there is no medicine for it...

lucia said...

yeah i'm sure all hate corruption.

something to share. i have a friend who works for the world bank and was stationed in philippine but being on quite a top position, he travelled around the world (to many places - almost half the world!) very often on business. he told me that everywhere he went, he encountered corruption. the corruption was terrible, he said, terrible... and you know what? not only on money (or material things eg house, car) but women (which means sex lah)! yes he specifically mentioned these 2 - money and women.

sad eh.

Lrong Lim said...

I am with you on this one, my friend...

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