KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Malaysia slipped seven places to be ranked 62 among 180 countries, with a lower score of 47, in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017, the country's worst score since the last five years and lowest ranking since the index was introduced in 1994.
In 2016, Malaysia was ranked 55 with a score of 49.
The annual survey by global anti-corruption coalition Transparency International measures the perceived level of public sector corruption according to experts, business people, risk analysts and the general public, using a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
New Zealand and Denmark ranked the highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively, while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia were ranked at the bottom three with scores of 14, 12, and 9 respectively. With the score of 49, Malaysia was ranked at the same level as Cuba.
Within the Southeast Asian region, Malaysia was ranked at the third place behind Brunei, which scored 62 and ranked 32, and Singapore with a score of 84, putting it in sixth place in the world.
Transparency International Malaysia President Datuk Akhbar Satar said some of the reasons that contributed to the lower score last year were the issues surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd and SRC International Sdn Bhd, the Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd scandal and the conviction of opposition parliamentarian Rafizi Ramli for whistle-blowing.
"Malaysia is going through an integrity crisis," he told a press conference at the unveiling of the results of CPI.
In conducting the survey, he said the major concerns surrounding corruption in Malaysia were impunity where thefts of public funds are unpunished, unresolved high-profile cases, absence of political financing law, injustice for whistleblowers and corporate liability provisions in the anti-graft laws.
Akhbar said a low CPI score will negatively affect a country's reputation for economic viability, especially for foreign investors.
"Of course there are studies that show the correlation between a country's CPI score and its economic growth. [That's why] foreign investors will always look into the CPI before they invest in a country," he said.
To improve Malaysia's CPI for 2018, Akhbar called for the government to improve its integrity in governance for the people to be convinced that corruption has been reduced.
"In order to convince the Rakyat, the government has to show their integrity; confess your weaknesses, rectify your problems, and don't lie [with] the statistics. The government must make sure that they are clean, and want to be clean," he said.