YOURSAY | We are fighting a losing battle against corruption

YOURSAY | ‘There was no strong will, effort or determination to eradicate corruption’.

CPI ranking drops, M'sia heading 'wrong direction' in fighting corruption

OCT: This is expected and not surprising as the previous two governments didn't seem to do anything about corruption. There was no strong will, effort or determination to eradicate corruption. When the MACC chief Azam Baki was implicated in a scandal, the government swept it under the carpet. Several high-profile corruption cases were dropped for reasons known to the government.

Moreover, some politicians try to make corruption a legal entity. When the government has no sincere efforts and pretends to close one eye on corruption, it will affect the CPI 2022 ratings. The world body can see it, but our government don't want to. Malaysia is already known as one of the top most corrupt countries in the world by other countries.

The government has no shame about the infamous and shameful title. Let's see what the present government will do anything about it. Hopefully, the CPI index will rise instead of falling.

MaoTuckTeng: This is going to go further south next year as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s litany of missteps and inaction grows:

• Deputy Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi still has corruption charges hanging over his head.

• The prime minister and finance minister are the same person!

• The daughter of prime minister, Nurul Izzah is a senior adviser in a ministry that he heads.

• MACC chief Azam Baki is still on the job. (Ferocious bark by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli reduced to yodel)

• No plan and resolution to reform the MACC.

• No new Anti-Corruption Bills in line of sight or forthcoming (such as the Unexplained Wealth Act) or further amendments to the MACC Act resulting in some getting to keep their loot or get away with discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA).

• No change in the attorney general. While the prime minister can’t be held responsible, the track record of Attorney-General’s Chambers in getting convictions after former attorney-general Tommy Thomas is bad.

• No royal commission of inquiry (RCI) is in sight to question Covid/Emergency budget but RCI is already afoot in investigating Tommy/allegations in his book.

• Allegations were made against former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin but no action or investigations followed.

• The mystery of Perikatan Nasional (PN) election budget and spending prowess, and ‘sedekah’ given by PAS to voters

BlueShark1548: Not surprising! We only had a chance in government but all else remained the same. Same MACC chief, same AG and same enforcement agency heads. The new prime minister appoints his daughter as his adviser in defiance of what he preached about nepotism and good governance! Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail does not seem to know his job.

Did nothing change except perhaps different pockets? We have another government that is focused on keeping its position and has no time to govern by implementing what PH promised to the public. A lot of hot air but no deeds which are typical of a showman rather than a man with vision and substance.

Guglu: You can only use the term ‘statistically significant’, if you are testing a hypothesis, and obtaining a P-Value (probability value) of 0.05 or lower. The data is just a score, not the result of a hypothesis test. Malaysia’s score is always hovering around 50, for the last ten years. Given the margin of error is +/- 5 percent, it has neither improved nor declined.

The average score globally is 43, so Malaysia is doing better than most countries. In South East Asia, Malaysia is ranked second, after Singapore, as the least corrupt country. It is heartening to see that Malaysia has improved its position from 62 to 61. Not bad for a developing country.

Congratulations to former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his PN government.

Focusapp: Where's the plan that contains measures to reduce or eliminate corruption? Anwar has been talking aggressively about fighting corruption. Those were the first words in his TV interview in Singapore. Maybe it's all talk. After all, he's a good orator, isn't he? The people are watching you, Anwar. If you do not measure up to your promises, then your tenure will not last.

Durian_lazat: Going after Tommy for his book ‘My story: Justice in Wilderness’ and former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak attempting to investigate the trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali who presided over the SRC International case, these are indicators of things heading the wrong way. The prime minister needs to stand firm against these unruly currents.

Anonymous_47029368: No news on the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal, Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) retained, corruption charges withdrawn, acquitted, postponed, 1MDB frozen monies returned, appoint daughter as 'pro bono senior finance and economy adviser' and so on. So what will next year’s ranking be?

VioletHare9377: Too many corruption issues involving politicians and taking a too long time to convict these people. We’re just not fast enough to resolve corruption cases.

Kim Quek: Readers have misinterpreted this report as reflecting poorly on the corruption score of the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim-led reformist government in the latest Transparency International (TI) Corruption Performance Index (CPI) 2022 announced presently.

This is not so, as this 2022 Index was tabulated in September 2022, well before Anwar took over the helm.

It is interesting to note that the only high score in the last decade was in 2019 when Harapan was in power. And the scores have been slipping relentlessly ever since a succession of backdoor governments took over the reins.

Needless to say, people are anticipating a dramatic reversal of this downtrend in the next CPI score to be announced in January 2024.

Bravemalaysian: This new government was only established at the end of 2022. So how can you say we are now headed in the wrong direction? Is that objective and fair? Look at the 2023 rankings first before commenting on the direction we are taking.

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