MALAYSIA fell to No. 62 in a global corruption index last year, down seven spots from 2016, marking its lowest position since the Transparency International (TI) index began in 1995.

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017, other countries, such as Cuba, Romania, Jordan, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Croatia, have now overtaken Malaysia.

It is the third year that the country has slipped in the anti-graft watchdog’s rankings, based on perceived corruption in the public sector.

TI said further analysis of the results indicated that countries with the least protection for the press and civil society organisations tended to have the worst rates of corruption.

The CPI ranks 180 countries by perceived levels of public sector corruption, according experts and business people. It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Malaysia, since it’s 2014 score of 52, has been dropping every year, passing the halfway point in 2016 (49) and reaching 47 in 2017.

Last year, US attorney-general Jeff Sessions has dubbed the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal as “Kleptocracy at its worst” and said more than US$4.5 billion in funds has been laundered using shell companies globally.

According to CPI’s Asia Pacific regional analysis, more than half of the countries scored less than 50 with an average score of 44.  New Zealand and Singapore topped the score with 89 and 84 respectively, and Phillipines (34), India (40), and the Maldives (33) scoring worst in the region.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said Malaysia’s rank was at its lowest in 23 years, and projected that China and Indonesia could overtake Malaysia in eight and 14 years respectively.

“The history of the 23-year annual TI CPI from 1995-2017 shows Malaysia had stagnated and regressed in integrity and principles of accountability and good governance as compared to some countries like China and Indonesia,” Lim had said in a statement today.

According to 2017’s CPI, Indonesia has scored better in the last five years, from 32 to 37 marks. China has also scored better in the last three years, from 36 in 2014 to 41 in 2017.

Lim also compared the CPI scores from 1995 to 2017, which spans the time of Dr Mahathir Mohamed, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and  Najib Razak as prime minster, with the corruption scores of Najib being the worst.

He said “nothing” has been done to improve Malaysia’s CPI ranking and score, and that PH will draft and implement a National Integrity Masterplan with civil societies.  

“Nothing, with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) joining the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet in denying that the internationally-infamous 1MDB scandal exists, relegating it virtually to the status of ‘fake news’,  and engaged in a national denial complex whether about “MO1” or Malaysia as a global kleptocracy,” Lim said.

In addition to the ongoign 1MDB scandal, last year saw other scandals being brought to public attention, like the overpriced purchase of luxury hotels in London and Kuching by Felda subsidiary Felda Investment Corporation (FIC), and a dubious land transfer also involving Felda. – February 22, 2018.