Malaysia’s corruption ranking dips, again
Among all ASEAN countries, only Malaysia’s and Thailand’s rankings dipped. But Thailand had fallen only four places while Malaysia had fallen nine places. Meanwhile, Indonesia achieved greatest improvement among ASEAN countries as it rose to 111 from 126 last year.
By LIM SUE GOAN/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily
According to a recent poll, Najib’s approval rating remains at 60%. It is indeed a good news. However, there are also two bad news: 74% of people are dissatisfied with the government’s performance in fighting corruption and abuse of power; and Malaysia’s corruption ranking had fallen to 56, from 47 last year.
Malaysia was ranked 23 in 1995 and today, it fell to the lowest ranking over the past 15 years. It had sounded an alarm for the country’s anti-corruption and foreign investment attraction. It also brought two unusual messages: Why is Malaysia one of the two ASEAN countries going backward? How could the ranking fall even the government has been calling to fight corruption, upgraded the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and listed anti-corruption as one of the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) areas?
Among all ASEAN countries, only Malaysia’s and Thailand’s rankings dipped. But Thailand had fallen only four places while Malaysia had fallen nine places. Meanwhile, Indonesia achieved greatest improvement among ASEAN countries as it rose to 111 from 126 last year. Competitions among countries are just like sailing against the current, you will soon be surpassed if you are falling behind while others are going forward.
It does not limited only to anti graft, but other areas like economy, national competitiveness, education, people’s quality, as well as human and social development are facing the same predicament. South Korea was not doing as good as Malaysia before but now, it is doing much better than us. Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines are working hard to rise but Malaysia is going backward. Sooner or after, it will be surpassed by laggard countries and become a non-mainstream country.
Besides, how could the ranking fall even after they have “done so many” and put in so much of manpower and resources? The most crucial factor is, they are lack of political commitments. More and more cases are left unsettled while those cases brought to court ended up in loss. As time passes, foreigners have a negative view, they will see anti-corruption slogans as political tricks that meant only to win votes.
Yes, MACC is doing its work, including carrying out the investigation on V.K Lingam’s video clip case and the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal. But what is the progress after they have opened the files?
The police always announce the crime detection rate but MACC dares not to announce its detection and successful prosecution rates. It’s investigations seem too mysterious and this has greatly reduced its credibility.
The government has no political commitment to MACC, causing the commission to act so evasively with the mentality of turning big issues into small problems. For example, the commission’s Deputy Commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohammed revealed earlier in a media briefing that the commission had provided advice for the poisoning incident in 2007 and it had as well provided suggestions for the wasteful spending issue involving a National Youth Skills Development Institute (IKBN). MACC is meant to fight corruption instead of providing advice. How is it going to fight corruption if it is not able even to understand the point?
Another absurdity is, MACC had arrested 605 people alleged to have been involved in graft but only 46% of them were civil servants. It reflected that the awareness levels of civil servants have increased. Everyone knows that the public sector is facing a serious corruption problem but MACC actually came out with such an idiotic conclusion.
Perhaps there is an advantage to have such a low ranking as it will be easier to rise next year. The problem is, can Malaysia do it?
