Malaysia needs to speed up reforms - IDEAS

SHAH ALAM - Corruption cases involving top agencies in Malaysia, last year, has caused the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) to drop five spots to the 62th position compared to 2020, where the country ranked 57.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) executive chief officer Tricia Yeoh said the CPI benchmark took into account the issues pertaining to corruption in public sectors and corruption cases within the key agencies of the country such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

She said graft cases involving MACC officers had tarnished the integrity of the agency which was supposed to combat corruption.

Yeoh said, the cases of misconduct by enforcement authorities be it at the federal or state levels in 2021, had led to a negative public perception.

“This has caused the CPI trend in Malaysia to keep declining and become inconsistent since 2018.

“The impact of the negative perception from the public and the declining of the CPI will complicate the post-Covid-19 recovery process.

“It will also have a negative impact on the confidence of investors abroad as well as disrupting the efforts to restore public confidence towards the institutions,” she told the Rasuah Busters.

Commenting further, Yeoh said measures that can be taken to improve the CPI and the country's image in the eyes of the world was through an institutional reform.

She said it was crucial for a reform to happen as it involves the independence of MACC and the enactment of the law regulating political financing.

Yeoh said the government needed to put in more efforts including to consider the public's proposal for a reform.

“We need a new agency or the reinstatement of the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) to monitor the process of integrity among administrators and policy makers

“Apart from that, the government needs to re-implement all the initiatives to eradicate corruption,” she said.