Malaysia could have done better in the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) if not for the slow pace of reforms including several high profile discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) cases, says Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M).
It's president Dr Muhammad Mohan said these were likely the factors for the nation's CPI remaining stagnant.
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It's president Dr Muhammad Mohan said these were likely the factors for the nation's CPI remaining stagnant.
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NewsTranscript
00:00So, Dr. Mohamed, are you satisfied with the score or do you think that we could do better
00:16with regards to this?
00:18Well, I wouldn't say we are satisfied with the score because basically we maintained
00:23the score.
00:25If you look at it, last year we were 50 points and I mentioned that we need to go up by two
00:31points every year to reach that target within the next eight, nine years.
00:36But when you maintain at 50 points, it means next year the job gets tougher.
00:41It means that we need to go up by about three or four points.
00:44So that makes it a very challenging thing for the country.
00:50So that's where we are and I hope all the efforts being done by the NACS and also in
00:57the task force will actually help to increase the score.
01:02So I'm a little bit disappointed but hopefully it can be improved next year.
01:11What are the main areas which you think that we should be looking at with regards to improving
01:17our scores?
01:19The main areas, as I mentioned, is I think we, first of all, the government should look
01:24at the reforms, institutional reforms, legal reforms that civil society has recommended.
01:32And as I said, the Whistleblower Protection Act is one of the lowest hanging fruit for
01:37the last five, six years.
01:40And I don't know where is the stumbling block.
01:43Is it at the cabinet level or the last minute?
01:45Because all these agencies, they sit together with us, and the law division in the Prime
01:49Minister's Department, or we call them by you, they have done a good job.
01:53They consult, they get our feedbacks and so on.
01:57And all the government agencies are there.
01:59So sometimes I'm a bit puzzled that when it goes to cabinet, somebody puts a spanner in
02:04between and then the whole thing gets bogged down.
02:07So I think this is where the government must be careful because while you want to make
02:12the reforms, but time is running out and you've got to speed up.
02:17So the Whistleblower Protection Act, I was told that in March it will go through, and
02:21I hope there will be no more delays after that.
02:24And the other one is the Freedom of Information Bill, supposed to go in July.
02:30This is what we have been assured.
02:32So if there is another delay, then it's another setback.
02:36So these are the type of reforms that we have been pushing for.
02:41Now the other important thing, I think the elephant in the room, is the issue of businesses
02:49who tend to give us feedback that they find that the corruption or bribery of offering
02:56and receiving is still there.
02:59And these businesses, many of them, do engage with the public sector.
03:03So this CPI is a measure of corruption in the public sector.
03:09So that is why I'm saying that we have to address this.
03:12And you saw in one of the scores there, IMD Survey, they have a partner in Malaysia called
03:19Malaysian Productivity Council.
03:21And we hope that they can engage with the various chambers of commerce, like the Indian
03:26Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Malay Chamber of Commerce, and to find out
03:31really from the business community what is really their problem.
03:34Where is the bottleneck?
03:37Because if I were a businessman, I got a government tender, I won it, now I have to
03:43kick off the project.
03:44But all these delays that are happening, it's going to affect my business.
03:50So that opens the door for corruption.
03:52We are not only talking about the government agencies, we always tend to also forget the
03:57local councils.
03:58You know, at the state level, we have the local councils in all the towns and all that.
04:03Now without their approval, you cannot proceed with the project, execution of the project.
04:07So this is one of the things that I think the focus should be there.
04:11Find out really from this private sector, why is the problem.
04:15But do you expect, with how things are going, the government, how things are being done
04:20today, do you expect it to go down or to go up?
04:25Well, as I said, we are still early in, coming early in February.
04:29As I said, the reform, institutional reforms, the legal reforms, that must come through.
04:37If these things are coming through, and public feels, I mean, sorry, the respondents feel
04:43that there is some improvement, government efficiency for example, all these business
04:47people who are also the respondents in this survey, if they feel that efficiency has improved,
04:54nowadays you find that to get an approval, instead of taking three months, three weeks,
05:00that people can see immediately, you know, and so on.
05:04Now the other one more thing, very important, which I may not have mentioned, is the judiciary.
05:09In all these surveys, if you go very deeply and look at the survey questions, they talk
05:14about judicial independence.
05:18So far, I would say, since the year 2017, 2016 until now, Malaysia has shown improvement
05:26in the rule of law, judicial independence index in the World Justice Project survey.
05:33So we are now ranked in 2023, 55, our rank.
05:38And I think credit should be given to the Chief Justice, after she came in, the image
05:44of the judiciary has actually risen up.
05:48So very important, the judicial independence must be there.
05:52So that is part of the survey.
05:54So if anything happens there, then it will also affect the CPI.
05:59So the CPI is a very holistic measure, it is not only about MACC arresting a number
06:04of people and then you measure, that is just only one dimension.
06:07There are many, many aspects to this as we discussed today.
06:14Thank you very much.