Corruption Worsens In Malaysia

Corruption Worsens In Malaysia

13 June, 2008

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has been deteriorating steadily over the past decade in its efforts to reduce corruption, according to a UN report and is a long way off from matching the standards set by Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, the top three Asian countries who are least corrupt.

Launching this year’s Asia Pacific Human Development Report published by the UN Development Programme in Kuala Lumpur Thursday (12 June), Transparency International (TI) Malaysia, Ramon V Navaratnam said, according to the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG), “Malaysia’s position has been deteriorating steadily over the last decade from 4.00 in 1966 to 2.38 in 2006.”

This compares with Singapore’s ranking which improved from 4.00 to 4.50 over the same period, making it the least corrupt Asian nation ahead of Hong Kong and Japan. However, both Hong Kong and Japan actually slipped in their anti-corruption ranking from 5.00 to 4.00 and Japan from 5.00 to 3.50 over the same period respectively.

Malaysia is in ninth position out of 19 countries ranked by the ICRG index and just ahead of Indonesia, Mongolia and the Philippines but behind Brunei, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

However, it fared better in the other two indices used in the UNDP report. Malaysia is in sixth place out of 29 in the World Bank’s Control of Corruption Index in 2006. Malaysia is also ranked sixth out of 25 countries surveyed in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. But both the indices showed corruption in Malaysia has worsened over the past decade to 2006.

“A lower index may signal that bribery and rent-seeking behavior is still rampant in lower levels of the government,” he said.

Navaratnam, who is the former secretary general of the Finance Ministry and now group corporate adviser to the Sunway Group, pointed that in such cases, corruption often transpires in the form of negotiated tenders, bribes connected with import and export licences, exchange control, tax assessment, police protection or loan transactions.

“This form of dishonesty extracts the highest price from the weakest in society as it diverts goods and services or benefits targeted for the poor to well-off and well connected households, who can afford to bribe officials,” he said.

He also said that these distortions undermine an efficient delivery system that is vital in reducing bottle-necks in the supply chain to improve the flow of goods and services.

“Malaysia can do much better if there is stronger political will to fight corruption on all fronts. Given the rapid pace of globalization and increasing economic competition among Asian countries, it is time to ‘pull up our socks’”

He added that renewed commitment to the fight against corruption would unlock greater development gains, while helping to manager inflationary pressures against the backdrop of skyrocketing food and fuel prices.

Navaratnam also pointed out that among the most important considerations for Malaysia is the management of natural resources such as forestry, fisheries and minerals.

“If bribery and corruption provisions are too broad in the management of natural resources, laws and policies can be manipulated to the will of big businesses and not for the benefit of the people,” he said.

“State-colluded degradation of the environment and illegal land expropriations can drive small scale farmers and indigenous communities into abject poverty, further hampering efforts to improve the livelihood of these groups,” he added.

He said according to TI’s Bribe Payers Index, companies from China, India, Russia, Taiwan and Malaysia involved in the extractive industries frequently pay high levels of bribes when conducting business overseas – often when their own natural resources have been exhausted. (By BOB TEOH/MySinchew)