DON'T POLITICISE CORRUPTION

MALAYSIA NOT CORRUPTION CHAMPS

We need to fight the corruption together. Don’t politicise corruption for political mileage.

It is time for politicians to educate the people. Not make them confused with old stories.

Recently, many parties have been raising issues pertaining to corruption and invariably repeating a news carried by the international media – alleging Malaysia was “champion in corruption”.

The report was first published in December 2012, four months before the 13th general election.

Then, the report was circulated via social media last year and again March this year.

Unfortunately, the same report was picked by certain politicians and leaders. The latest was by Sabah assemblyman, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

In his view, he was quoted as saying corruption was so bad in Malaysia that a leading US newspaper reported that Malaysia was the world champion in corruption and he stressed that corruption must be eradicated.

Yes! I agree with what Kitingan said – that corruption must be eradicated. It is unfair for the leaders to repeat the same story. They should aware the efforts have been taken to eradicate corruption in Malaysia.

The same issue was raised by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during a press conference in March where he picked the statement circulated by Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post in December 2012.

He repeated the same point several times since then.

The bias statement has brought a negative perception to Malaysia as well as Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the people.

I do agree that corruption is still an unsolved problem in our country but to repeat constantly that we are champion in corruption is certainly not something to be proud of.

Are we the champion of corruption? Is Malaysia the champion of corruption? For sure the answer is no! Kids could tell us the definition of champion. Unfortunately, adults cannot see the difference.

Since 2012, we are witnessing a lot of changes and improvements as results of various initiatives in combatting corruption in Malaysia.

Malaysia stands at No. 50 in the Corruption Perception Index in 2014 globally and this shows the MACC and government’s commitments in ensuring Malaysia achieves its target of top 30 countries in the CPI report by 2020.

Besides that, Malaysia’s economic freedom score is 70.8, making its economy the 31st freest in the 2015 index and the index also proves that we had risen to the “mostly free” category since 2011.

The analysis by Asian Intelligence report in Asia, United States and Australia revealed perception score towards Malaysia has improved since 2006. Malaysia’s score in 2006 was 6.13 and improved to 4.96 this year.

There are ample studies and analyses done on corruption in Malaysia over the years and the positive results are evidence that Malaysia has been improving and serious about eradicating graft.

A study by the Bribe Payers Index 2011 also showed Malaysia’s score is 7.6, making us on a par with Hong Kong, a country frequently taken as an example in terms of freedom and high performance in fighting corruption.

To explain further, Global Competitiveness Index 2014-2015 had showed Malaysia was at No. 20 from 144 countries measured after the government implemented changes in 2009.

The report also stated “in a region plagued by corruption and red tape, Malaysia stands out as one of the very few countries that have been relatively successful at tackling the issue, as part of its economic and government transformation programme”.

The co-founder of Transparency International, Michael Herhsman, also said that Malaysia has taken a holistic approach to combat corruption and the data shows the country has made progress.

I am not denying that corruption do not exist in Malaysia. However, strongly believe that the people of all segments should appreciate the efforts taken by the government in combatting corruption.