EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

In search of sustainability

It is not surprising there was no concordance or anything substantive at Rio+20

  AT  the end of the Rio+20 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development to mark the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit, which took place in the same city in 1992, a 49-page document titled The Future We Want was released.

But as it did not provide any specific timetables or achievable goals, many green groups were scathing about the conference attended by more than 45,000 participants from 190 countries. The responses from people like Felix Finkbeiner from  Plant for the Planet, who blasted the text as "a long, 49-page blah", and Bo Normander, European director of Worldwatch Institute, who dismissed it as " a long list of platitudes and feeling-good rhetoric", reflected the dismay of the disappointed environmentalists at the "squandered opportunity" to "set the world on a path towards sustainable development", as World Wide Fund for Nature director-general Jim Leape put it.

Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam, was quite right to say "they came, they talked, but they failed to act". But then again, as "sustainable development" has no specific meaning beyond "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs", it is not surprising that there was no consensus on anything substantive at Rio+20. What is clear is that developing and emerging countries did not want to commit to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies or to the levying of taxes on financial transactions to tackle climate change.

This is not surprising as poorer nations will not willingly accede to binding rules that dictate how they should develop. Certainly, the watered-down proposals to protect the world's oceans, for instance, were not what Greenpeace wanted. But as what green non-governmental organisations want is not necessarily what developing countries need. It is just as well that this was just another talk shop, as far as the rest of the world is concerned. One thing is certain: one size does not fit all and there is nothing sustainable about trying to hold back development. The way forward, said Malaysian Palm Oil Board chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad, is "balanced economic development with environmental protection".

So, while activists like Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo may slam Rio+20 as a "failure of epic proportions", this is hardly a consensus view. Indeed, for people like Alan Oxley, chairman of World Growth, a group that promotes palm oil, the outcome of the summit was "a welcome surprise" as it delivered the message that "environmental problems must be tackled in ways that promote growth, trade and business".

Warring on graft

The government's anti-corruption campaign is the most intensive ever

 CORRUPTION, and the inequalities and injustices that flow from it, was undoubtedly a factor in the Arab Spring. Those who risked life and limb in Tahrir Square, Cairo, among the masses in the rest of the Middle East, were fed up with the wrongs of the Mubarak regime's decades-old dictatorship. Nearer to home, the same can be said for the toppling of Indonesia's President Suharto in 1998. Rampant corruption and abuses of power made for a disquiet that few ordinary citizens could take, especially on empty stomachs, and tolerable to even fewer of the middle classes. While Malaysia never faced the same level of unhappiness, the prime minister recognised corruption's ill effects on society and the economy as he generated a comprehensive policy that would address it in holistic fashion. Graft-busting was elevated to a priority of considerable importance.

The government of Datuk Seri Najib Razak has made fighting corruption an integral part of the two-pronged National Transformation Policy (NTP). A National Key Result Area (NKRA) high on the list of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) -- one half of the NTP -- the effort is spearheaded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Armed with a carefully structured strategy, the MACC is tasked with being seen to eliminate all corrupt practices. Towards this end, three facets have been forwarded: judicial reforms that include a special anti-corruption court to facilitate prosecution; an Integrity Pledge and Integrity Pact from both government-linked companies and private companies; and, public education. The MACC, an independent body, works with the people, the private sector and other stakeholders to achieve the desired end. Both hard and softer approaches have been incorporated into the anti-corruption crusade.

On the one hand, the rigorous Integrity Pact acts as an incentive for companies to abjure kickbacks when bidding for government contracts by giving them a shortlist advantage. On the other, so as to encourage those individuals with knowledge of acts of corruption to come forward, the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 was enacted. Crony relationships will be broken by competition. The sum total of these, part of the three pillars against corruption, is that all parties benefit, a fact manifest in the World Bank's "Doing Business Report" that has ranked Malaysia ahead of major Western economies as a country where doing business is easy. For the population, no corruption means no economic leakages and a fairer allocation of resources all round. However, what is most pertinent is the government's political will that has set in motion a relentless mechanism to end corruption in high and low places alike.

(Dated-27/06/2012)