Rasuah Busters: Unfair to classify all civil servants as corrupt
SHAH ALAM - The problem of corruption involving civil servants needs to be assessed holistically and fairly to enable the country to find a solution to the problem among the group.
Rasuah Busters Chief Executive Officer Nurhayati Nordin said categorising all civil servants as the primary contributor to corruption in the country was an unfair interpretation.
“Civil servants in the country are estimated at 1.6 million people. Out of the number, based on the statistics of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), we can see how many civil servants are involved in corruption.
"I’m not saying the number is small. But if we look at some examples, as of April this year, 115 (corruption offenders) civil servants were arrested, which is less than last year.
"If you look at October last year, 104 offenders were arrested. That is equivalent to 0.01 or 0.02 per cent of all civil servants,” she said.
She said this while being a panellist for the 351st edition of Wacana Sinar Harian dubbed 'Noktah Rasuah Penjawat Awam' on Friday.
The programme was also attended by the Malaysian Educational Institution Graduates Association (Haluan) president Dr Abdullah Sudin and MACC Community Education Division Deputy Director Mohamad Tarmize Abdul Manaf.
In this regard, Nurhayati said the solution that should be emphasised in addressing the issue should focus on efforts to build a support system to fight corruption among the majority of civil servants who were not involved in corruption.
“So, a system of defence support in the civil servants needs to be emphasised in order to uplift the civil servants who are the biggest trustees in our country.
"So I believe that this empowerment is something we can optimise," she said.
Meanwhile, Dr Abdullah said, the prevention aspect alone was not enough to ensure that civil servants were spared from committing corruption.
He said this was because a long-term solution needs to be implemented to ensure the integrity of civil servants by emphasising on comprehensive education from family to tertiary level.
"Education (on the dangers of corruption) needs to be leveraged at all levels until the curriculum is integrated with the national education system," he explained,
As for the Muslims, Dr Abdullah said, they need to be instilled with high Islamic values while performing their duties.
“Muslims must remember that our religion has sins and rewards. In order to get the reward, it has to be ‘paid’ with integrity and trust (Amanah). This is a very important thing,” he said.
At the same time, Abdullah also said that the issue of low wages was also seen to have no clear relation to the tendency for an individual to commit corruption.
