Sin Chew Daily

Hot Burger Malaysia founder Mohd Asri Hamid was unhappy his stall was raided by the city council enforcers while illegal gambling centers were spared.

As a result, he slammed the MBSA enforcers on his Facebook account, accusing them of selective enforcement. The post subsequently went viral on the social media and caught the attention of the authorities.

Wednesday morning, MBSA launched a massive raid operation in collaboration with several other departments such as MACC, PDRM, immigration department, customs department, etc. against illegal businesses in Sungai Buloh.

The presence of illegal gambling centers has constituted an open contempt to the country's law, and heavy penalties must be meted out to enforcement personnel found to have sheltered such operations. This is a very serious incident that we cannot afford to take lightly.

The massive raid carried out by the city council enforcement unit shows that indeed the authorities are very concerned about this matter. Mohd Asri, who revealed this problem, was personally met by the IGP, and this proves that the authorities view his allegation very seriously.

Several MBSA officials have been subsequently detained to assist in the investigation. The swift action by the authorities to round up vice dens and battle corruption and abuse of power must be highly commended. Having said that, the incident has also opened the eyes of Malaysians to the severity of bureaucratic corruption.

The incident in Sungai Buloh could be just the tip of the iceberg and it is imperative that the authorities review this matter comprehensively and build an efficient mechanism to block the propagation of corruption.

We cannot fight corruption in such a passive manner but must adopt a more proactive approach in order to fully seal off all the loopholes.

Mohd Asri has said he used to take some video clips to lodge a complaint but there had been no follow-up actions from the authorities. Does that mean if he did not make this matter public on Facebok, this whole thing would just be swept under the carpet?

MBSA should conduct an indepth probe on the lack of action after Asri lodged the complaint. Could it be just a lapse of duty on the part of some individual officials or there are indeed loopholes in the entire mechanism?

Meanwhile, the authorities must also make sure that all complaint channels are smooth and effective so that public complaints will get due attention from the authorities.

The information provided by members of the public can help improve enforcement efficiency and by right should be valued by the authorities. In no way should the complaints filed by the public fall on deaf ears.

Although this time Mohd Asri's complaint was no longer ignored, thanks to the power of social media, it is absolutely necessary for the authorities to enhance the efficiency of their management as well as operation and take prompt actions from the complaints lodged by the public. Resorting to the social media to get the attention of the authorities should never become the "new normal" in our society.

With the massive raid operation carried out by the MBSA, it is believed that the issue of city officials sheltering illegal businesses in Sungai Buloh will be solved very soon.

But this is not the end yet. The authorities must contemplate more effective ways to weed out corruption and abuse of power and eradicate the problem right from the very root of it in a bid to resolve the problem once and for all.

While the raid did produce some positive results, a more important question now is: What next?