The red line we keep moving

JJ Singham

Everyone wants the best for their family. We want to provide for them, to give them nice things and a comfortable life.

Every spouse wants to give their partner the best gifts, a nicer house, an expensive car. Every parent wants their children to do better than they did, and would spare no expense to make that happen.

But is it right to do whatever it takes to make this happen – even if that means corruption? This is the million-dollar question. In Malaysia, it’s more of a billion-dollar one – millions have become small change among the big players.

A shifting red line

In politics, the red line we should never cross has been pushed back so far. It is now barely different from the red horizon of a setting sun.

Corruption has become common. Moral boundaries have grown so blurred that offenders justify their actions as the just reward of a life in politics – or simply as ‘good fortune’.

This view is reinforced whenever we see charged politicians, business figures and people of influence grinning from ear to ear, even while photographed in handcuffs. They treat it like a walk down the red carpet, acting as if they are untouchable.

They seem certain that money can buy them out of any situation. This is often done by gaming the courts, with endless delays and legal tangles that drag cases on for years – and mean justice is rarely delivered.

So why do people still vote these individuals into high office? Why do political parties rush to form coalitions with tainted factions the moment they sense a chance to rule? Where have our morals gone, and why do grassroots members still follow their leaders like lemmings off a cliff?

Often, these puzzles have a simple answer, found in the dance between nature and nurture. Nature gives us our shared biological blueprint: our drives for survival, for belonging to a group and for social approval. Nurture then shapes how those instincts actually play out.

We see this clearly in how Western societies tend to foster independence, while Eastern cultures nurture a strong sense of community and deep loyalty to the collective.

A dangerous kind of loyalty

This Eastern trait of community loyalty can be beautiful. But it becomes dangerous when weaponised.

When people are conditioned from a young age to see public life purely through identity and rigid dogma, a herd mentality can take hold.

It is through this gap between nature and nurture that corrupt politicians exploit our deepest values. By framing political survival as a defence of the community or the faith, they mask their own greed. They persuade well-meaning people that protecting a corrupt leader is the same as protecting their identity. This is how they stay in power for decades, escaping accountability for their financial crimes.

Unpicking this kind of early conditioning is no small task. When a child is taught that loyalty to the group comes first, and that questioning authority is a betrayal of their heritage, independent thinking is stifled before it has a chance to grow.

This kind of conditioning builds an emotional shield that facts struggle to pierce. If we want to break this herd mentality, we cannot just target corrupt politicians. We have to look closely at the soil in which these mindsets take root, and change the environment that nurtures them.

Changing how we nurture

To break this cycle and build a genuine nation, we must protect our shared values from political exploitation. When governance relies on divisive dogma rather than shared decency, unity breaks down.

Instead, our focus as a nation should be on keeping public administration centred on universal moral principles, institutional integrity and strong civic awareness.

True civic consciousness means judging a leader not by their rhetoric, but by their honesty. It requires an environment where public administration is held to the highest standards of transparency – and where civic duties such as empathy, fairness and zero tolerance for corruption are treated as the true measure of a decent person.

Our schools and communities need to become places where young minds are taught to value fairness over blind loyalty, and where integrity is celebrated above tribal identity.

Only by recognising how our loyalties have been shaped and exploited can we raise a generation of independent thinkers – one that values accountability, and finally draws a clear red line against corruption.

JJ Singham is a regular follower of Aliran.

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