Despite the “1Malaysia People First Performance Now” slogan and the alphabet soup of GTP, NKRA, MKRA, SRIs, ETP etc and one Roadmap after another of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the National Integrity Plan of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia is the worst country in the Asia-Pacific in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in past 16 years since the start of the annual ranking in 1995.
In the first TI CPI in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries or the 6th highest-ranked nation in the Asia-Pacific after New Zealand -1, Singapore – 3, Australia – 7, Hong Kong – 17 and Japan – 20, with a CPI score of 5.28.
Sixteen years later, after numerous anti-corruption campaigns, two major anti-corruption legislation and “transformation” of the former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) into Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with massive infusion of public funds and increase of staffing, Malaysia has continued to remain in the lowest TI CPI ranking of No. 56 as last year but with the lowest CPI score of 4.4 – falling to No. 11 country placing in the Asia-Pacific.
In the past 16 years, Malaysia had lost out to five other countries in the Asia-Pacific, namely Taiwan now ranked No. 33 with CPI score of 5.8; Bhutan (No. 36 – 5.7 ); Brunei (No.38 – 5.5); South Korea (No. 39 – 5.4) and Macau (No.46 – 5.0).
Even more serious, other countries which had been down on the list of the TI CPI ranking are fast catching up while Malaysia is fast falling down!
Thailand, China and Indonesia are three examples in Asia. China was ranked No. 40 with a CPI score of 2.16 in 1995. In 2010, China is ranked No. 78 with a CPI score of 3.5.
At the annual average rate of China’s improvement and Malaysia’s regression of their CPI scores in the last 16 years, China will not only catch up but will leave Malaysia behind in the TI CPI, both in ranking and in score in a matter of six years – come 2017!
Another Asian country set to overtake Malaysia is Thailand, which was ranked No. 34 with CPI score of 2.79 in 1995, and is now ranked together with China at No. 78 with CPI score of 3.5.
Breathing down Malaysia’s neck in the TI CPI is India (No. 87 – 3.3), having climbed from No. 35 with CPI score of 2.78 in 1995.
Even Indonesia is making significant strides in the anti-corruption front. Ranked at the very bottom of No. 41 in 1995, with CPI score of 1.94, Indonesia is now ranked No. 110 with a CPI score of 2.8 in 2010.
Malaysia is the worst country in the TI CPI in the past 16 years, falling from No. 23 with CPI score of 5.28 to No. 56 with CPI score of 4.4 in 2010.
Malaysia is also losing out to other countries in other regions. For instance Turkey, which was ranked No. 29 in 1995 with CPI score of 4.4 has caught up with Malaysia in 2010, equally ranked No. 56 with 4.4 CPI score.
It is heart-rending to see Malaysia losing out to Middle East countries. Jordan was ranked No. 30 with CPI score of 4.89 in the 1996 TI CPI when Malaysia was ranked No. 26 with CPI score of 5.32. In TI CPI 2010, Jordan has shot ahead of Malaysia, ranked No. 50 with CPI score of 4.7.
Saudi Arabia, which was first ranked No. 46 with CPI score of 4.5 in 2003 (when Malaysia was ranked No. 37 with CPI score of 5.2) is now ahead, with ranking of 50 and CPI score of 4.7.
In the past 16 years, Malaysia is perceived by the world as becoming more and more corrupt while other countries have become less corrupt!
The NKRA on “fighting corruption” had set the target to increase the TI CPI score from 4.5 last year to 4.9 this year, but the reverse has taken place, falling to a new national low of 4.4!
What is most unacceptable and reprehensible is the attempt by the Minister for NKRA Datuk Idris Jala, Pemandu (Performance Management and Delivery Unit) and the MACC to whitewash the shocking failures of anti-corruption measures this year by claiming that the TI CPI ranking and scores are not correct or reliable.
Pemandu claimed that in the past year, Malaysia had bettered the graft score from 5.2 to 6.3 in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, from 3.6 to 4.6 in the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy’s (PERC) Asian Intelligence Newsletter and from 4.5 to 4.6 in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report – and that based on the “average score of the four surveys, it is clear that Malaysia’s index has improved from 4.45 in 2009 to 4.975 in 2010”.
Pemandu, which is being staffed by highly-paid consultants and professionals, is being most dishonest, unethical and unprofessional in trying to engage in an unacademic PR exercise to gloss over the abject failures on the anti-corruption NKRA front as TI CPI had not changed its methodology from previous years.
Malaysia’s CPI 2010 is calculated by TI using nine sources by six independent institutions – the same as in previous CPIs. Unless Pemandu challenges the validity of previous CPI scores, it cannot selectively dispute the validity of the 2010 CPI.
The worst TI CPI score for Malaysia in 2010 should be a top issue in Parliament for the government to explain in the 2011 Budget winding-up stage of debate. Instead, this subject has been avoided like the plague, although many MPs had spoken about it in the debate.
The two Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon studiously avoided the subject of Malaysia’s worst TI CPI in 16 years in their winding-up, further undermining public confidence in the political will and commitment of the Barisan Nasional government to declare war on corruption, particularly grand corruption of the “Ikan yus” as distinct from “ikan bilis”, as well as the real worth and utility of expensive Government Transformation Programme run by highly-paid professionals and consultants with their NKRAs, MKRAs, SRIs, etc.
Every roadmap from these guys leads to the pot of gold known as “wang rakyat”.
Take the Warisan Merdeka tower for example. All UMNO need to do is to say that PNB will be totally transparent in this project, and the project will be competitively tendered with professional consultants who won’t be interfered with. The award will be made in public with the opening of final tenders.
They can’t even promise this, because they know in their own hearts that the project was designed to milk funds for political purposes, and hence there can be no transparency.
The slogan of “rakyat didahulukan” is simply a joke that even the kampung folks now realise.
And you know what ? Pemandu has no licence, just like that express bus driver that caused the crash near Genting Highlands.
PEMANDU will drive us for a tour of Africa ending at ZIMBABWE. No wonder someone was trying so hard to engage the African countries a little while ago so that all our actions and performances would be related to their levels. So here we go with PEMANDU just like the African Ostrich who supposedly love to hide its head in the moving sand. Of course, it is always the repeats of past; a different vehicle with the same motive as many would say, it is another sandiwara basically to hookwink the poor rural folks. Hence, the fierce debate on which medium to use to teach the young Malaysians, using English would certainly and eventually open up their eyes and minds thus short circuiting their 1000-year programme for eternal power!!
can somebody wake up jala and tell him that the world will not give them 30% quota, NEP or ketuanan cr@p.
so therefore his comment on “unreliable and not correct” without the 30% head start is reliable and correct.
for goodness sake, just vote them out. i just cannot tahan their egos and hypocrites.
When I become PM, I shall give them 90% …… not of the nep, but 90% of the cells in Kamunting. (The remaining 10% for the mca)
Clearly, Anwar Ibrahim has chosen again to hog the limelight with baseless allegations yet again. Jho Low in a ‘tell all’ interview with The Star had clearly stated that he had nothing to do with 1MDB.
However, this time around the opposition MPs the likes of Tony Pua, Lim Guan Eng, and Anwar had erred big time by repeating lies in order to scuttle, yet again, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s roadmap to transform Malaysia.
The most often heard lie, was the much repeated KLIFD and Mubadala agreement. Tian Chua, Batu MP, had made a statement to MalaysiaKini (which was not corrected) that Mubadala had inked an agreement to develop the Sungai Besi airbase, when clearly the agreement was done with regards to the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District, an area covering 35 acres in the fringe of Jalan Imbi, whereas Tian Chua had mentioned the 460 acre airbase instead.
Not only has these irresponsible MPs been stoking the issue with lies, they have also repeatedly misled the rakyat to believe that Jho Low was a big part of the plans, when clearly he wasn’t.
///bla bla bla/…perampok
ya of course. we believe you 100%. and sure, So-Low takes more than 1 month to counter the allegations. a lot of paper can be shredded in a day, let alone a month.
anything else to add? can you not quote anything from the Me-Cina-Anjing (MCA) paper?
I was in a Singapore bistro recently and they had a short stand up comedy act by a white man. Amongst other things he was telling a joke about his driving experience in Malaysia and with our PDRM. It went something like this:
” I drive around in this 10 year old Honda Civic that the Singapore Govt have been trying to get me to junk it. But I love driving it into Malaysia and on the NSE. One day I was driving at about 130-140km/hr. I was stopped by the police. The policeman told me I was driving too fast. I asked how much (meaning how fast)? Policeman answered “200”. I replied it is impossible for my old car to reach 200km/hr. No! Said trhe policeman. “200 ringgit”
The whole room laughed. The foreign audience knew exactly what the joke was as they are all too familiar with our PDRM when they drive on our roads.