MALAYSIA POOR RATING IN CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX

- Relevant to P1 and P3. Also of interest to all Malaysians.

"Corruption is stealing from the poor." (Latin Proverb)

Malaysia's corruption perception index remains unchanged from year 2007 at 5.1. While the score remained the same, the country had, however, slid from 43rd to 47th place in the ranking of 180 countries. It rates them on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean). Year 2008, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden share the highest score at 9.3, followed by Singapore at 9.2.

President of Transparency International Malaysia Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said that this development was disconcerting. Malaysia's CP index has fluctuated between 4.9 in 2002 and 5.1 in 2008."What the latest findings show is that what the government has done so far to eradicate corruption has failed to make an impact. People don't believe any of these changes are real or meaningful for fighting corruption in the public sector required strong political will." Navaratnam told a press conference during which he released the results of the Transparency International's survey on corruption.

The Transparency International CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country. It is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. At 47th ranking, Malaysia is more corrupt than unstable countries like Hungary and Israel. Even gambling based economy, Macau, is cleaner with ranking of 43.

Highly clean scorecard is strongly related to strong economic performance. You can right to think that Singapore, Hong Kong, Sount Korea, Japan, Luxembourg and of course Anglo-American powers have high scores.

Tan Sri Ramon statement is incomplete for he says the people themselves must move to put a stop to it. That can be done if Maaysia authorities have set up strong governance system with follwoing qualities:
1. Government reporting structure that is lean and efficient. Set up Information Technological links to Anti Corruption Agency. Have the Judicial Court system expedite backlogged cases and publish case studies on web sites.
2. Report immediately all cases of alleged corruption. Invest in Human Resource Training with knowledge of the law and ethics knowledge.
3. Respond speedily, putting deadlines of 100 days to solve all alleged corruptions.
4. Involve top leaders and politicians to be visible to civil servants that they support Clean Government. Speeches alone are insufficient. Have seminars and set up Clean Government Agency headed by top leaders. Repeat stories, reward anti-corruption actions with symbols such as promotion, commendations and awards.
5. Regulate policies with clear punishmnent for misconduct. Automate referals to authorities when sufficient evidences warrant public prosecution.
6. Set up independent bodies. MACC (Malaysian Anti Corruption) is a good initiative, however its independence and objectivity can be enhanced with ‘parelel’ bodies such as Ethics Council, Lawyers Volunteers and Police Enforcement Volunteers, all of which plays the role of watchdogs.
7. Ensure the enforcement task force Human Resources are taken care off. Instill sense of pride in carrying out duties, use mission statements and remunerate according to merits. Encourage task force pursue academic qualifications with scholoarships offers and pay according to market rate benchmarked to private sector.
8. Review all of the above every 3 years to stay in relevance. This should be done by Government sponsored independent Body comprising of Transparency Index Council members which in itself should be drawn from private sectors, business leaders, university professor researchers and task enforcement (police).

All of the above are mere wishful thinking, if the government remained unconvinced and people are resigned to the thoughts that nothing will change. Well, world economic infrastructure has changed with :

• Weak commodoties price
• Over capacity of manufacturing machineries
• Weak entrepreneurships discouraged by corruption
• International unrest and uncertainties dampening tourism industry.

Notice all of the above are core economic pillars of Malaysia, which are now undermined. Sooner than later it will hit the country hard causing social unrest and political mire. Lives could be lost too. We don’t need to look far. Just watch Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmmar all of which have high poverty rates. Our poverty level is ‘manageable’ largely due to the country's rich natural resource to finance it. This is coming to an end.

One report estimates state that corruption cost Malaysia RM$160 billion a year! It includes bureaucratic red tape, Unnecessary human resources to ‘entertain’ authorities, unwarranted police interventions. All of these result in poor food product quality with banned ingredients, shoddy infrastructures, sub-quality utilities to name a few. All of these cause sufferings and economic losses like yielding to sicknesses (cancer is a major culprit), loss of workers productivity and pre-mature deaths.

Final Word: Who should do the job? The following Latin Proverb is thought provoking,

"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” (Brineous, 568 A.D)

References :
1. Anonymous-A, 2009, Corruption Index, http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008/cpi_2008_table, Visited on : 9th April
2.Bahmani-Oskooee, Mohsen & Nasir, Abm, 2002. "Corruption, Law and Order, Bureaucracy and Real Exchange RATE," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 1021-28, July.
3.Dreher, Axel, 2005. "IMF and Economic Growth: The Effects of Programs, Loans, and Compliance with Conditionality," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Kiel 2005 11, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics
4.Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1998. "Regulatory Discretion and the Unofficial Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 387-92, May.
5.Paolo Mauro, 1996. "The Effects of Corruption on Growth, Investment, and Government Expenditure," IMF Working Papers 96/98, International Monetary Fund.

Author’s official political stand: As an independent observer and politically neutral, the article below is intended to demonstrate practical knowledge and application of ACCA Professional Papers, P1 & P3. The author does NOT endorse, support or recommend affiliation to any political party.