PETALING JAYA, Feb 12: The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center) says there is an urgent need for drastic institutional reform if the Malaysian government expects to see a rise in the country’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
On Tuesday, Feb 11, Transparency International (TI) released the 2024 edition of their CPI rankings, which revealed that both Malaysia’s CPI score and ranking for the year had remained stagnant. According to TI, Malaysia maintained its place at 57 out of 180 countries, with a score of 50 out of 100 total points.
In a statement here today, C4 Center attributed the stagnation in CPI to the government’s failures to make good on their promises of introducing robust anti-corruption reforms.
“Despite the repeated affirmations by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of his government’s commitment to anti-corruption, the multiple failures to effectively enact justice on individuals involved in corruption has soiled this rhetoric. In the past year alone, the government has faced accusations of prosecutorial incompetence throughout their handling of several high profile corruption cases.
C4 Center said the government’s aspirations of a top 25 ranking must be backed up with action.
It also pointed out that although the pursuit of an improved CPI ranking was commendable, the ranking alone would not necessarily reflect actual changes in the perception of corruption.
“With rankings being dependent on the performance of other countries, an increase in a country’s rank can be caused if other countries perform worse for that given year. To illustrate, Malaysia ranked 61/180 in 2022 compared to 62/180 in 2021, despite the score being higher in 2021, at 48/100 compared to 47/100 the following year. As such, the higher rank did not reflect an improvement in the perception of corruption in Malaysia.”
Hence, the idea of CPI as the primary benchmark by which they measure Malaysia’s real progress on anti-corruption is an approach with limitations that must be taken into account and publicly acknowledged, it said.
“The CPI serves its purpose of acting as a stepping stone towards guiding good governance and anti-corruption reforms — when the government proactively introduces such reforms, it prospectively creates the perception for relevant stakeholders and the general public that the nation is prepared to deal with corruption through established mechanisms. These do not necessarily imply that there is a real reduction in corruption yet.”
Hence, it is crucial that the government introduces these mechanisms and critical reforms that facilitate good governance, which would then improve perception and lead to a real reduction of corruption in the future. Such reforms are:
- Legislating new good governance laws such as the Ombudsman, Government Procurement, Right to Information, Political Parties Act(s);
- Creating asset declaration laws and conflict of interest frameworks for politicians;
- Amendments to existing laws such as the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010, Official Secrets Act 1972, and Section 203A of the Penal Code;
- Ensuring the independence of key anti-corruption institutions such as the separation of the offices of the Attorney General and Public Prosecutor, and the independence of the MACC from Executive influence.
Though a number of these reforms have been mentioned within the government’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2024-2028 (NACS), it must be noted that without an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism, little effect towards grand corruption will be noted. C4 Center notes the recent launch of the NACS Dashboard — a live web page tracking NACS completion — and invites the government to engage in further discussion with experts, academics, and civil society to further develop this initiative.
In view of this, C4 Center would like to re-emphasise that the Madani Government must make good on their promises of anti-corruption by instituting long-anticipated reforms. It is important to recall that not only Pakatan Harapan, but several other major coalition partners such as Barisan Nasional, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Parti Warisan Sabah have campaigned for better governance and integrity in the past. Therefore, aspirations of greater anti-corruption measures should be a collective effort by all government parties. In upholding the CPI as the primary anti-corruption benchmark, the government’s pursuit of anti-corruption measures must not merely be done, but also seen to be done. The pursuit of this goal must be achieved without fear or favour.
–WE