MALAYSIA has moved up 10 places in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index (CPI) 2019, underlying Putrajaya’s continuous efforts to combat graft under the new government.

With a score of 53 points, Malaysia is now ranked 51 out of 180 countries surveyed by the international graft watchdog.

Announcing the score today, TI-Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan said the improved ranking is due to a number of factors such as the swift action taken by the new government on scandals involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), SRC International Sdn Bhd, Felda and Lembaga Tabung Haji.

“We were improving from 2012 to 2014, but somewhere in 2014, the 1MDB scandal surfaced. The public came to know about, media started reporting about it, and a lot of questions were asked.

“It was a downward trend since 1MDB was of the main reasons for our CPI to deteriorate.

“In 2018, after a new government took over, the score improved because of the commitment shown to make Malaysia free of corruption,” he told at the Transparency International Malaysia conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Other factors include the arrest of several political figures for corruption and money laundering by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), greater media freedom, asset declaration by the ruling party MPs, enforcement of the Corporate Liability Provision (Section 17A) in June and the Pakatan Harapan government’s five-year National Anti-Corruption Plan.

CPI scores countries from 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Last year, Malaysia was at 61 with a score of 47 points and in 2017, it scored the same points but ranked 62.

Comparing this latest score to past years, this is Malaysia’s best since 2012, when the scoring was rescaled from 0 to 100.

Before 2012, the measurement was done from scales 1 to 10.

By using the latest scale, Malaysia’s highest was in 2014, scoring 52 points.

CPI has been published annually since 1995 and ranks countries by the perceived level of public sector corruption as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.

In the international corruption index released today, Denmark and New Zealand are tied at the top spot with the score of 87, followed by Finland on 86 points.

Malaysia’s neighbour Singapore is fourth scoring 85 points, making it the only Asian country in the top 10 of the CPI table.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is in third place behind Singapore and Brunei.

Among the Islamic countries, Malaysia is ranked 5th, behind UAE, Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia.

Muhammad said the Pakatan Harapan should accelerate institutional reforms such as making the MACC more independent, institute an independent police complaints commission, enact political financing laws to stop money politics, and regularly engage with the public and civil societies on reform progress as well as to receive feedback.

He said these actions will further improve Malaysia’s standing in the CPI. – January 23, 2020.