Kim Kardashian is ever present on social media. But she was silent for three months after she was burglarised in a Paris hotel room. The burglars took off with millions of dollars worth of jewellery. 

Early this month, she made her long-awaited return to social media — much to the delight of her thousands of fans the world over.

Kardashian is a class act as far as maximising social media goes, using the various platforms available to her advantage. Her presence on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook has boosted her star billing. Her profile is so high that she has raked in millions in TV deals, commercials, appearances and what not.

But her social media blitz has attracted the wrong kind of people as well. It is said the burglars came to know of the jewellery she had in her hotel room via her posts on social media platforms.

In Malaysia, social media postings are drawing the attention of the “good guys” —the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

MACC says social media has become its source of information in tracking down “ill-gotten wealth”.

Hence, civil servants and their families who flaunt expensive holidays abroad and luxury items on Facebook and Instagram risk courting the commission’s attention.

According to MACC deputy chief commissioner for operations, Datuk Azam Bari, while it is not a crime for civil servants and their families to own luxury handbags and watches, “having one too many Hermès, Chanel or Louis Vuitton bags will raise eyebrows and suspicion as to the source of their wealth”.

“If civil servants or their family members are having more than a dozen and flaunt them, then we would like to know where they got the money to buy them,” he said.

Based on what MACC said, we can expect the graft buster to look beyond or rather above civil servants and their families. We can, right? We can expect MACC to take a look at ministers and members of parliament, too.

You see, ministers, deputy ministers, MPs and their families are said to be fond of displaying their wealth via social media platforms, with Instagram and Facebook being their favourites.

For example, postings of a fleet of expensive luxury cars and expensive watches said to belong to the son of a federal minister can be seen often on Instagram and Facebook. He posted them himself.

The teenage son of another minister thanked his father on Instagram for branded shoes costing at least RM5,000 per pair.

Then there are the photographs of a minister and his family vacationing in Europe, including cruising on a yacht off the coast of Greece.

There are also Instagram postings of the wife of an MP showing the entire family on frequent holidays in Asia and Europe featuring fine dining and shopping sprees.

There are many more — all on social media for all to see. It is just a click away, so to speak.

I am not accusing anybody of anything here. There is nothing wrong for ministers, deputy ministers, MPs and their families to go on expensive holidays abroad and to own luxury goods.

But as Azam has said, flaunting wealth can attract MACC’s attention and raise questions among the public. Do you not agree?

Transparency Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar certainty thinks so. In his response via WhatsApp, Akhbar said: “The MACC can and should investigate ministers or anybody, for that matter. If they suspect [there is an] element of corruption, they should open investigation papers and probe for evidence.”

Recently, the international media reported that the Thai authorities are considering the death penalty in some corruption cases — for example, officials convicted of corruption involving more than one billion baht (about RM126 million) would face death by lethal injection.

The story was picked up by local news organisations, in particular, the online media. And the responses of Malaysians online are as expected — lots of sarcasm which I do not intend to repeat here.

But in a nutshell, based on the comments, Malaysians want more to be done in the fight against graft. And this should come about without fear or favour.

Freelance writer Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and was executive producer  at The Edge TV

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