Malaysia's corruption ranking dips, again

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?

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Comments (25) Add Comment

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written by a guest, November 21, 2009 05:30:45

PAKATAN!!! CHECK YOUR MPSJ HEAD OF LICENSE FOR CYBERCAFE!!!! THEY ARE ASKING FOR RM20,000 UNDER TABLE MONEY FOR 6 MONTHS OF LICENSE!!! EVERY 6 MONTHS TAKING RM20,000!!! Under BN, they took RM30,000 per year. Now UNDER PAKATAN, ITS RM40,000 per year!!
THIS IS BULL BERAK OF OPEN CORRUPTIONS where YOU PAKATAN unable to control your own CIVIL SERVANT!!

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written by Watchdog, November 20, 2009 22:10:20

What nonsense - our ranking didnt drop. The others moved up - thats all. Malaysia boleh. Lancau pun boleh

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written by talk2stop, November 20, 2009 22:00:21

Read my lips,"THERE IS NO CORRUPTION IN MALAYSIA". That is how Malaysia conduct her business. Malaysia must be the most liberal market compare to any developed countries. If you want to set up a whore house next to a primary school it is of not problem. Try doing that elsewhere. Malaysia believes in free market. If you have the means and money you can do it in Malaysia. If not bugged it and go elsewhere. Malaysia is here to make money not to make friends.

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written by Eskay345, November 20, 2009 20:31:32

Malaysia allows corruption provided that corruption must be committed by an Umnoputra.
That's why reports of financial mismanagement, cheating, CBT taking commissions on official procurement of military weapons and submarines by high-ranking officials & senior ministers are O.K and not being investigated by the Macc. (Now our Defence Minister is in a hurry to procure a battle ship smilies/wink.gif

So will he claim 12% commissions worth hundreds of millions too?
But watch out you "ikan Bilis" taking small amounts, you will face the full force of the law.
Because this is Bolehland.

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written by Vivarium, November 20, 2009 18:59:13

The defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid had just announced his intention to purchase the so-called Amphibious Sealegs for the Navy from a New Zealand company.
We as the taxpayers want to know:
1) who the middleman is,
2) how much is the commssion for the middleman
3) how much Ahmad is getting
4) the rationale behind the purchase
5) if there is any open tender

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written by beijing, November 20, 2009 18:44:05

Corruptions is allowed by the government of Malaysia. Malaysian government will be very proud of the latest corruptions ranking. Once again we are on top of the world. We are world number one. The tallest and the highest. We teach our young generation how to corrupt. We encourage the culture of corruptions. We celebrate when we corrupt. For thus who are corrupt consider university graduated and cold hold the high profile in parliament. For thus who are not, they need to attend training of corruptions practice in the government agency. 1st lesson is: don’t ask for the share if you not been given or else will treat by the C4. smilies/cheesy.gif

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written by Vivarium, November 20, 2009 18:38:31

To begin with, MACC is just another corrupted government agency. And Najib is their boss
It is merely a creation by the goverment of the day to go after the opposition as its main mission, and occasionally pull up some small fries to justify its existence.
As a comparison, the anti-corruption agency in neighbouring Indonesia is answerable only to the parliament and the head of the agency is not through appointment but a selection process done by the parliament for a 5-year term.
It is little wonder that MACC is hated by the Malaysian people but loved by the corruptors, while the Indonesian anti-corruptuion agency is loved by its people but hated by the corruptors.

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written by jayenjr, November 20, 2009 14:58:01

"According to a recent poll, Najib's approval rating remains at 60%. It is indeed a good news. "
=======================================================
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Why is that "good news"?

Say Lim, have you ever heard of Altantuya?

If you did, do you think this is "good news"?

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written by freerpk, November 20, 2009 14:10:14

If our corruption index for Malaysia is falling it just means MACC is not doing the work they are supposed to do but doing things that has nothing to do with the index or is it??

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written by jokersland, November 20, 2009 11:36:49

What are the big fuss on the corruption index. What we are more concerned is how we are going to plunder our country wealth. For the ordinary layman like us, your hardship to survive these days doesn't matter to the political elites.
Malaysia Your Truly Jokers Land

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written by batsman, November 20, 2009 10:49:37

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the corruption is covered up by veneer of wealth and progress. When this veneer falls off because it is no longer sustainable, the rottenness will be plain for all to see.

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written by aplus, November 20, 2009 10:38:20

RM28 billion ripped off from the tax payers, and mind you that's averaging RM80 million per day for the whole auditing year.

And what did 1Malaysia has to say besides searching for mitigating circumstances? If we look at what China does there isn't much of a dick.

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written by jaz, November 20, 2009 10:25:23

They can actually calculate the corruption rate? *Amazed and Impressed* Can they do that? How about listing out all the names of the corrupted. So we could line up a firing squad. Should be no time we could raise up to top 10, if executed properly.

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written by asguard, November 20, 2009 09:44:14

najis the mother of corruption and murder PM!

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written by budakindia, November 20, 2009 09:41:13

We should wait until we need to bribe them for going to toilets too! Come on, break the record of being the lowest, much worse than Somalia! Then people will know ketuanan Melayu and 1Malaysia are all about corruption, bribery, murder like the Nazi era! smilies/grin.gif

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written by ekt tan, November 20, 2009 08:12:36

This is an excellent result to be proud of. We have yet to hit number one from the bottom. Those UMNO goons does not care about these rankings. Their aim is to continue to 'korek snd korek'

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written by adan, November 20, 2009 07:59:48

This is what the country has inherited from the 22 -year of ThE GOLDEN AGE OF MAHA CORRUPTION.. ThIs. maligned growth has been creeping and spreading (since then ) into every fabric of our society at every level to the core ...Unchecked , unabated .corruptuion has become so embedded.in our system that it has become part of our culture and our way of life. All lindications are that further SLIDE is inevitable.GOD SAVE US.

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written by Ghifarix, November 20, 2009 07:52:11

But they are treating us unfairly, MACC is probably the only Corruption watch-dog that has murder on its hands perhaps in its investigation manual. We must be dropping like a meteorite, that means a bottomless pit.

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written by educationist, November 20, 2009 06:34:00

Look how The Star try to make the drop in ratings look good!!
Well, it's to be expected of the MSM to ingratiate themselves to their political masters!!

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written by minds, November 20, 2009 06:12:12

Not just coruptions from bad become worse,in the 70' our football are the top to compare with japan and s.korea.
At the 70' if malaysia vs japan sure malaysia win 8-0 NOW if malaysia meet japan ai yo cannot predict maybe japan win12-0 MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!!boleh apa boleh? coruption

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written by krising1, November 20, 2009 05:20:58

MACC only has to charge Khir Toyo, V K Lingam and Eusoff Chin for corruption. We will go up the notch by 50 points. Convict them and we will be up by another 50 points. Of course, charge Mamathir, we will be tops. Easy lah!

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written by mowadoha, November 20, 2009 02:52:44

"The problem is, can Malaysia do it?"

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written by Tompios, November 20, 2009 02:01:44

Sure!! MACC works effectively and that's how Malaysia rated as 56th corrupted country.

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written by Ocassey, November 20, 2009 01:51:57

WHAT IS IT THAT HE SAYS ???

TO HELL WITH RANKINGS ------ JUST AS LONG AS I REMAIN RANKED NUMBER ONE !!!!

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written by Ocassey, November 20, 2009 01:48:08

A DRUG ADDICT LOSES ALL SELF RESPECT.

A CORRUPTED POLITICIAN WILL CREATE MORE CORRUPTED COLLEGUES.

A LEADER WHO MURDERED WILL SILENCED MORE TO STAY FREE.

TO HELL, HE SAYS ,