Make room for business ethics

THE Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM) welcomes the reassuring breeze sweeping across the nation.

As an independent non-profit organisation that has been working against the odds since 1997, the institute registers its hope and trust that the vision to ensure transparency and integrity in business among the national stakeholders will now receive a booster so that ethics takes centre-stage for businesses and policymakers.

We have witnessed how declining ethical standards and lack of integrity have ultimately burdened the consumers and business organisations.

The institute has been registering its vehement disapproval for the various sins of omission and commission in the country especially during the tenure of the Najib administration that reeked of corrupt and/or suspicious attempts to compromise ethics and integrity.

The institute continued to voice its concerns through letters to the editor after our participatory role in national level institutions like the Institute of Integrity Malaysia began to receive empty and lip service responses.

On the record too, the institute which was serving on the Academic Board of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), resigned in protest to the appointment of the current MACC Chief Commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad in view of what we believed was a breach of fundamental ethical parameters.

The state secretary has yet to reply to our notice of resignation.

The institute had also contributed over the decades by working closely with the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism and had during the Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi administration prepared and produced the nation’s Code of Business Ethics that was launched in 2007 by the ministry.

But as we continued to voice our uncompromising stand on ethics, the ministry increasingly kept the institute in the distance.

Our experience has been one of great discouragement short of saying frustrating in our fervour to ensure that the government helped businesses to rise to higher standards of ethics and operated out of integrity.

Hence, with this earthquake change of government, the institute looks forward to seeing the blossoming of an ethical climate through consultative policy making as well as the transparent enforcement of ethics and integrity by appointed authorities.

The institute believes that businesses are ready, willing and urgently need support from the government and institutions vested with the responsibility of raising the index bar of our country’s business ethics.

We believe that the incoming government under the leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the team of leaders who will be appointed to spearhead the government machinery will enable organisations like the institute to continue our nation building role.

In keeping with our founding philosophy, institute will continue to champion a cleaner, more transparent and righteous model of business practice towards a fairer landscape for Malaysia.

Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia