MACC is the Malaysian of the Year

(The Malaysian Insider) Today marks the first year of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which started with promise and is now dismissed as another political tool to earn it being named The Malaysian Insider‘s Malaysian of the Year for 2009.

At a time when politics continue to dominate the national discourse, one institution — the MACC — has stood out as an unfortunate symbol of all that is wrong in the country, unkept promises.

Indeed, the idea for a Malaysian of the Year should inspire a search or a look-back at a personality or institution that we should aspire or look up to.

But there are times in history — such as in 1938 when Time magazine controversially chose Adolf Hitler as its Man of the Year — when negatives, such as tyranny in the case of the German leader or failure in the case of the MACC, merit the award of the accolade.

From the ashes of the impotent Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) which made few headlines during its existence, the MACC was born on Jan 1, 2009.

The cynical among the public expressed little hope that the new institution could achieve much more than its maligned predecessor.

The more optimistic ones among us would give the MACC a chance to prove itself.

After all, it had been invested with more powers by the departing administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to deal with the one scourge — corruption — which has grown to a level that it has become part of the country’s fabric.

But few would have anticipated the depths the MACC would sink to.

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