CPI drop by 7 places is deeply disappointing!


AS the former president of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) and now an honorary commissioner in the MACC, I am deeply disappointed at Malaysia’s poor performance in the International Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

We have dropped 7 places from 55 to 62 out of 180 countries and our CPI score has declined to 47/100, well below the perceived passing mark of 50/100!

This is the worst result in the past 5 years. It’s not only deeply disappointing, but also gravely disturbing and damaging to Malaysia’s aspirations to build the image of a developed or high income nation by 2020.

Why did the CPI fall so much?

MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad, the whole MACC itself and indeed the government and the minister in charge himself, must be very upset with the shocking CPI results!

The causes of the fall have been partially provided frankly by Dzulkifli himself as an immediate and knowledgeable response.

He claims that it is the overall perception of the country. It’s not corruption per se in its narrow concept, but the decline in good governance. He is surely right!

This means that too much politicking, growing racial and religious intolerance, wastage of public funds, a weakening of morality and some big scandals, are also responsible for the bad CPI results. And don’t forget the money politics rearing its ugly head soon!

All the good work done by the MACC to robustly fight corruption, has been negated by the apparent inability to do more to contain grand corruption.

Although medium sized and petty corruption could have been reduced, it is grand corruption that matters in Transparency International Berlin’s view.

What can be done now to improve the CPI?

There are many recommendations made by (TI-M) and other pressure groups that have been presented and pushed for a long time. But they have been dashed aside, in the hope that we can combat corruption within the current framework of governance.

This mild approach can’t achieve much, as the latest depressing CPI results have shown.

What is needed are more radical and meaningful structural reforms. For example, the MACC should be made responsible only to Parliament and report directly to Parliament.

The Whistle Blowers Act must also be improved. This will encourage more whistleblowers to come out without fear of being charged and convicted themselves.

In that case, who would want to be a whistleblower? Who trust the struggle against corruption?

The MACC should also be a more independent body, with full powers to hire and fire its staff who would not be beholden to government employment.

There are many other global best practices to adopt – if we are really serious to

combat corruption more effectively.

Conclusion

There is no need for the MACC to ask the government for feedback or direction

on what to do next to get out of this corruption trap?

The MACC is fully aware about what has to be done. Let’s hope the MACC will give the cabinet, a full and honest appraisal on what has gone wrong and what needs to be urgently done, to prevent further deterioration in the CPI, before the 14th general election in a few weeks time.

Then let the rakyat judge the future direction to fight corruption, which is causing inflation and undermining national unity and destroying our country’s soul!

God bless Malaysia! – February 22, 2018.

* Ramon Navaratnam is a former senior civil servant and is the chairman of ASLI Centre for Public Policy Studies.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.


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