The sheer scale of theft of public money and institutionalised corruption in Peninsular Malaysia under mega thief Najib Razak has, to some extent, overshadowed the less well known, and so far un-investigated, torrent of corruption in Sarawak.

Yet when and if what has been happening in Sarawak for decades (not merely overlooked by the Sarawak government but fundamentally participated in and profited from by Sarawak politicians and others) is laid bare, it will rival if not exceed the Najib thievery.

The MACC is an efficient and properly funded body with many experienced staff but it has yet to make a single significant arrest in the State despite the blatant corruption of State Governor Taib and his political and official associates.

Why is that?  Up to GE 14 the answer was that Taib enjoyed the protection and backing of mega thief  Najib Razak and therefore protection from investigation and prosecution by the MACC.  Regrettable? Certainly.  Disreputable? Without doubt. Though, based on Najib’s record, it is certain that any MACC official who dared to investigate any of his friends or associates, of whom Taib Mahmud was, and it seems still may be, would have at best lost his job.

That, of course should have changed with the advent of the reforming PH government. But what has actually happened? The crooks of BN Sarawak, now passing under a different name, sit allied to the government benches in the Assembly protected by PH and safe from enquiry and prosecution. From a Najib umbrella to a PH one?

And all this on the basis the these criminals can provide necessary voting support to permit, admittedly much needed, reform of the Constitution. But that is both an easy and a shameful way to secure the PH objective of constitutional reform. Far better for PH and for the people of Sarawak, if the MACC were to be directed to investigate,procecute and clean, once for all, the Augean stables from the corruption that clogs and shames Sarawak. The forthcoming State elections would afford PH an overwhelming majority so allowing the much needed constitutional reforms to be accomplished democratically and untainted by association with a gang of mega crooks.