FEB 1 — Singapore top anti-narcotics officer Ng Boon Gay and the chief of its civil defence force, Peter Lim, are in disgrace.

They have been suspended from their jobs and are under investigation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for being allegedly involved in some unsavoury practice involving a woman and money.

High fliers, their careers are over. In Singapore, the government is being criticised for its tardiness in informing the public. Apparently one of the officials was arrested in December and the government was forced to issue a statement confirming the arrest only because a newspaper had released the information first.

Can you imagine, the government is getting hammered because it was late in notifying the public? In Malaysia, we would have been doing cartwheels if such decisive action had been taken against senior government officials for corruption.

But such is the situation in Malaysia that even an official who has been the centre of some of the most damaging allegations can sleep easy. Some of the allegations made by former cop Mat Zan Ibrahim against Attorney-General are very serious in nature but the Prime Minister has done nothing. He has not suspended the AG pending a full probe or set up an independent commission to investigate the serious complaints against Gani Patail.

In Singapore, can't imagine an AG who is facing an allegation of fabricating evidence would still be in his job. He would have been suspended and facing sometime in Changi prison.

So why can the Singapore leadership or authorities throw caution to the wind and arrest and nab top cops and civil servants rather than sweep it under the carpet? Maybe it is because the decision makers and the politicians are relatively clean and cannot be held to ransom.

It is fact that it is hard for Malaysian decision-makers and leaders to take on corrupt civil servants because their hands are not clean. I dare say that the AG knows too much about our men and women in Putrajaya to be fearful of them.

And this is what is the difference between the two countries: one has a set of leaders who can stand up to scrutiny and another has a bunch of ministers and civil servants who cannot justify the lives they lead. With skeletons in their closets, how can they take action?

* Tan Teck Huat reads The Malaysian Insider.