COMMENT | Pakatan Harapan rode to power in GE14 on a groundswell of disgust that Malaysians felt against the blatant scale of corruption committed by the former BN regime.

While Harapan targeted former premier Najib Abdul Razak and the 1MDB scandal in their campaign strategy, the coalition was fully aware of the fact that corruption extends beyond bare-faced kleptocracy.

That is why the Harapan manifesto in GE14 decried the patronage practised by BN in appointing politicians and their partisans in state institutions. It is time Malaysians take a stand on these facets of corruption in our institutions for if we don’t, we will find our country is forever doomed to an age of mediocrity.

What is alarming is that since Harapan came to power on May 9 last year, they have reneged on this most important of promises and we have seen more and more cases of political patronage and co-option of NGO activists into state institutions. Political patronage involves the appointment or hiring of a person to a government post on the basis of partisan loyalty...