MALAYSIA must resolve its corruption scandals and empower the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to restore its integrity and international image, said anti-graft watchdogs in response to the country’s slide in ranking in a global graft index.

Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism executive director Cynthia Gabriel said the rot in public life was spreading through public institutions.

“Unresolved issues like 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) and the shocking plundering of public funds through GLCs like Felda and MARA indicate that the rot is spreading across different public institutions.

“More than these scandals themselves, the problems lie in the entire system of public administration, the nexus between politics and business that have contributed to these corruption crimes in the first place.

“The complicity of the current attorney-general and their refusal to charge SRC International despite MACC’s appeal is too damning of the current system, and the financial mismanagement of the country’s resources is plain for all to see,” she said in a statement today.

Cynthia said Prime Minister Najib Razak can no longer pretend that everything is well and has to answer unresolved questions about these scandals before he can even think of getting a fresh mandate from the people in the coming election.

Hisbah Centre for Reform president Ezam Mohd Nor said Malaysia’s fall in the CPI ranking is anticipated as no one was prosecuted in the 1MDB and SRC International scandal.

“Najib should resign now in the country’s interest before the country’s good name is further tainted and Malaysia becomes a ‘pariah state’,” Ezam told The Malaysian Insight.

Ezam said the only way for Malaysia to restore its scarred image was to change the government.

Malaysia fell to 62 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 released by Transparency International today, down seven spots from 2016, marking its lowest position since the index began in 1995.

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

Bersih 2.0 chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said time and again officers in MACC have investigated cases of corruption but have hit a dead end as the attorney-general allows the files on his desk to collect dust.

“Malaysia has witnessed grand corruption scandals involving large sums of money in recent years. Indeed, one of the most infamous cases – corruption of billions of ringgit under 1MDB – has been dubbed ‘kleptocracy at its worst’.

“And why shouldn’t it be called so when in seven countries overseas investigations are being opened and carried out, (but) the Malaysian government has slapped the Official Secrets Act on the 1MDB report from 2016 and silenced voices seeking answers?” asked Maria.

She added that other major corruption and money laundering scandals involving Felda Global Ventures, Majlis Amanah Rakyat, Tabung Haji and the National Feedlot Corporation must also be resolved satisfactorily.

She said the MACC needs to be given the powers to prosecute otherwise Malaysia will continue to slide “into the abyss of corruption”.

Meanwhile, Business Integrity Alliance secretary general Mark Lovatt, cautioned that the government must take immediate steps to restore the rule of law and Malaysia’s international standing.

“Dealing proactively with the well-recognised failures in corporate governance for specific organisations, which have repeatedly emerged in the international media over the past 12 months, will reassure the worldwide community that the government of Malaysia has turned a corner and is doing what is necessary to prevent a repeat of these disasters,” he said.

“The Alliance sincerely hopes that the relevant government bodies will now act quickly to deal with these important matters.”

He added that the onus is not just on the government to help improve Malaysia’s standing, it’s also the responsibility of the business community to work together with public officials to root out the rot.

The government has put on hold a proposed amendment to the MACC Act that would hold companies liable if their employees or associates give bribes to obtain business since 2014. – February 22, 2018.