Hassan Ali, Selcat and “embarrassing” civil servants who facilitated corruption

by Nathaniel Tan

A good trip, and good to be back.. :)

Now, on this Hassan Ali controversy.

I will admit this much: it’s probably no fun to be on the receiving end of the caustic wit of people like Azmin Ali and such; also, civil servants are not as much to blame as the BN politicians who have made our state and country what it is.

All that said, I don’t think I’m with YB Hassan on this one.

No, we are not talking the same order of Nazi soldiers “just following orders,” but nonetheless, are we to say that civil servants who played a role in the corruption that has robbed our country dry to be free from blame?

I know it’s a difficult thing to do, to put one’s livelihood at risk, but all over the world, heroes have stood up for justice. Even here at home, the likes of Tan Sri Ani Arope and others like him have taken stands of principle and refused to be party to the corruption of our land.

And then there’s the question of whether this is putting the civil servants through “undue embarassment,” and calls for these proceedings to be held behind closed doors.

I don’t know about you, but I believe Malaysia has been through enough “closed doors.” What is the point of an investigation if it is hushed up?

Are we to bend over backwards so that people who might - strictly speaking under the letter of the law - technically be criminals, can be saved from embarassment?

I recall the Broken Windows Theory, which basically argues that one of the key ways to prevent major crime, is to have a tough attitude towards “minor” ones.

It’s not as if Selcat hasn’t tried to go for the big guns. It’s just that the likes of Khir Toyo have refused to present themselves at the hearings.

I don’t think anyone should be made scapegoats; but I do feel that anyone who was part of the system (and that in many ways includes you and me) has a price to pay, proportional to their complicity.

If the signatures of certain civil servants have allowed the rakyat’s hard earned money to go to waste, or into the pockets of unscrupulous men and women, then I’m not going to say it’s unfair to subject them to a little “embarrassment.”

It’s a lot better than criminal charges, which may or may not be what such individuals deserve under the law.