Malaysia anti-corruption culture has not yet fully developed
Malaysia recorded a total of a six point drop in Transparency International's annual CPI over the past three years. Inset: Nurhayati
Yayasan Sinar for Malaysia (#RasuahBusters) chief executive officer Nurhayati Nordin said for the culture of rejecting corruption to flourish these obstacles need to be removed.
She said Malaysia's new leadership emphasis on anti-corruption reform as a main priority should manifest itself in a comprehensive mechanism that puts an ends to cronyism, nepotism and favoritism.
"Political instability, leakages, cronyism, nepotism, loopholes in our law is what hinders Malaysia from improving its performance in the corruption perception index. These obstacles should be removed immediately," she said in a statement on Tuesday.
"These mattesr will likely slow downcour development and become the largest obstacles in our effort to fight against corruption.
She said these elements opens up room for bias, prejudice and causes issues, whether grim or trivial, as well makes it difficult to control conflicts of interest.
Nurhayati was commenting on the latest Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) report which states that Malaysia has slipped one point in the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score from 48 points in 2021 to 47 points out of 180 countries.
She said the leadership of the country needed to step up their game as the latest CPI results will prove that it will be difficult to execute a total transformation.
"The CPI index which will have a direct impact on investment and relations between countries in terms of economic development, which demonstrates that anti-corruption and integrity agendas should be a crucial strategy in comprehensive institutional and legal reforms.
"The government's performance system should re-examined and the government officers competence should be evaluated to prepare this country to fight corruption,"she explained.
She said the government should be more tolerant in accepting the opinions of experts, professionals and the society who are willing to cooperate in efforts to stop corruption.
"We must understand that corruption has an impact on the nations prosperity, stability and economy. Understanding our responsibility to bring the country towards a better position in the index is fully dependent on the government's attitude and the people as a whole.
"Prioritise anti-corruption commitment, recognise the people's voice to ensure a safer and more blessed Malaysia," she said.
