This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 23, 2018
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is facing an integrity crisis, said Transparency International (TI) Malaysia, as the nation’s ranking in the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) dropped seven places to 62nd among 180 countries, with a lower score of 47.
This is Malaysia’s worst score in the last five years and the lowest ranking since the index was introduced in 1994. In 2016, Malaysia was ranked 55 with a score of 49.
TI Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar said factors contributing to the lower score last year included issues surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd, SRC International Sdn Bhd, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd and Sabah Water scandals, and the conviction of opposition parliamentarian Mohd Rafizi Ramli for whistle-blowing.
“If the government does not address these ongoing issues, our CPI will be even worse this year,” he said at a press conference to announce the CPI rankings.
“However, if not because of the MACC’s (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) aggressiveness in conducting investigations and making arrests to deter corruption in the country, the ranking could have been further eroded,” Akhbar added.
He said the major concerns surrounding corruption in Malaysia were impunity where theft of public funds went unpunished, unresolved high-profile cases, the absence of political financing laws, injustice for whistle-blowers and corporate liability provisions in 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 showing the correlation between a country’s CPI score and its economic growth. [That’s why] foreign investors will always look into the CPI before investing in a country.”
TI’s annual survey 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. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia were ranked at the bottom three with scores of 14, 12 and nine respectively. With a score of 49, Malaysia is ranked at the same level as Cuba.
Within Southeast Asia, Malaysia is in the third place behind Singapore (ranked sixth with a score of 84) and Brunei (ranked 32nd with a score of 62).
To improve Malaysia’s CPI for 2018, Akhbar said the government must improve its integrity in governance for the people to be convinced that corruption is an issue being tackled.
“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 they are clean, and want to be clean.”