Malaysia Is A Little Less Corrupt This 2014

Putrajaya, which in the past has dismissed the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI), has hailed the latest report announced by Transparency International for Malaysia on Wednesday as proof that the country is making progress in its fight against the scourge of corruption.

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It was not immediately clear whether the country was now perceived as less corrupt or that others have become even more corrupt while Malaysia too had the same level of corruption as before or worsened since last year.

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On the country's moving up two points to 52 from 50 last year score-wise, Pemandu noted that it was equivalent to its highest point achieved in 2003. Pemandu chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala said the latest improvements was proof that anti-corruption activities is a sum of building blocks, and clearly showed through the efforts implemented in the last five years.

"Malaysia is on the right path in creating a free and fair environment in both the private and public sector," he said, in a statement.

"This means the Government Transformation Programme is on the right track. Nonetheless, more work needs to be done and the dedication towards eliminating corruption must continue,” said the minister in the prime minister's department.

Malaysia’s CPI improved by only two points from a score of 50 out of 100 in 2013 to 52/100 for this year. The ranking is still low at Number 50 out of 175 countries. Last year we were ranked 53 out of 177 countries. That’s hardly any real improvement because it means that Malaysia is still perceived as a seriously corrupt country despite so many government initiatives to fight corruption.

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Corruption is indeed severely weakening our society and our economy. Income disparities are expected to worsen. The rich and corrupt will prosper while the poor and honest will become poorer.

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Malaysia moved up three spots on the latest Transparency International corruption index, a climb unhindered by its inability to plug a public sector bleeding taxpayers’ money.

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The 2014 corruption perceptions index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 175 countries and territories.

Malaysia ranked 50th out of 175 countries studied by the global anti-graft organisation with an index score of 52, two points better than its 2013 score of 50. The country recorded a score of 49 in the 2012 edition.

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Denmark took the top spot in this year's ranking with a score of 92, followed by New Zealand (91), Finland (89), Sweden (87), Norway (86), and Switzerland (86). Countries with the highest perceived level of corruption are Somalia and North Korea who scored eight espectively as well as Sudan (11) and Afghanistan (12).

Malaysia is ranked second among Asean countries, with Singapore ranked first and the Philippines ranked third.

According to TI-Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar, no one could afford to tolerate corruption as it damaged the economic growth of the country. "Every year, we lose 5% of our GDP to corruption," he said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Malaysia continues to be in mid-range average, indicating that while many steps have been implemented under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP)and National Key Result Areas initiatives, the level of corruption has not significant decreased," said Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar. "Stronger measures and practices need to be enforced and must be taken to eliminate entrenched interests and processes that support abuses," he told a media briefing here today.

To improve the situation, he said,TI-M had underlined a few recommendations for the government to consider, as part of critical efforts to curb corruption. The recommendations, among others, were about improving transparency, including the call to repeal the amendment of Section 203A of the Penal Code; to replace the Official Secrets Act (OSA) with the Freedom of Information Act;as well as to review weaknesses in the Whistleblowers Protection Act.

The body also urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to improve enforcement, intelligence and evidence-gathering, to boost public support and deter potential corruption. TI-M hopes the government will consider reforming any kind of political financing for political parties so that it can be more transparent and accountable in how they receive and spend political donations.