COMMENT | Azam’s view shows M’sia faces a corruption epidemic
COMMENT | Why would Azam Baki, the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), denounce the highly regarded Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International? Azam is quoted as stating that since the CPI is based “on perceptions about public sector corruption”, this index “was neither factual nor based on evidence”.
Azam’s statement, coming as it is from the head of the anti-corruption agency, is both embarrassing and outrageous. Azam’s contention was his response to a question about his plans to improve Malaysia’s standing in the CPI. Malaysia had fallen five rungs in Transparency International’s 2021 CPI ranking. This was the second consecutive year that Malaysia had fallen in the CPI rankings.
There is a possible reason for such an inappropriate statement by Azam. When the CPI rankings were released this year, the MACC announced its intention to assess what had contributed to this fall. When doing this assessment, the MACC would obviously have considered the method employed by Transparency International to measure corruption in a country.
When Transparency International prepares the CPI, it evaluates a government’s ability to contain corruption in the public sector and if public officials disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest. The CPI also appraises if a government can prevent bribery and whether legal protection is provided for people who report cases of corruption.
A review of events in Malaysia over the past six months would indicate that the government has fared badly on all these...
In truth, our dubious chief graft buster and the corrupt ruling elite are birds of the same feather. How else could we explain the striking phenomena that MACC Chief Azam Baki’s indisputable corruption evidence were ignored by the Cabinet while numerous corruption scandals of the ruling political leaders “investigated” by MACC have met their inevitable oblivion? In fact, if not for Harapan’s short-lived rule, the world-shattering corruption infamy of 1MDB would be buried deep underground by now without any of the culprits being prosecuted. Alas, the frightening prospect for the country is that Umno is now poised to resume its corrupt rule through the coming GE 15. Will our electorate’s political consciousness be so fickle that they would forgive and forget its horrible corruption record and re-entrust the country’s destiny into Umno’s hands again?