Graft index plunge makes Najib the worst PM, yet Umno pretends not to notice

It is most shocking and outrageous that up to now, neither the PrimeMinister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak nor the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan SriMuhyiddin Yassin has responded to the worst international report card forMalaysia in the 32-month Najib premiership.

This worst international report card for Malaysia was delivered on the same day that Najib made his “do-or-die” UMNO Presidential Address last Thursday, but for the entire UMNO General Assembly, the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2011 was the “elephant in the room” with all the UMNO leaders and delegates putting up a great pretence that it never existed.

Not a single Umno leader has spoken up

In fact, not a single UMNO leader or delegate at the UMNO General Assembly breathed a word of concern about corruption in general or TI CPI 2011 in particular – apart from giving “blank cheque” support to Wanita UMNO leader and Minister for Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil in her embroilment in the RM300 million “CattleGate Cow Condo” scandal!

Three days after the UMNO General Assembly, the TI CPI 2011 - which was the worst ranking for Malaysia in 17 years since the introduction of the annual ranking, plunging from No.23 placing in 1995 to the worst ever of No. 60, as well as registering the lowest-ever score of 4.3 when Malaysia scored 5.28 in 1995 and 5.32 in 1996 - continued to be “the elephant in the room” for the entire Najib government!

In the past week, Muhyiddin has been both Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, completing the full repertoire of political stances ranging from that of an extremist playing the race card in his speech at the joint opening of Umno Wanita, Youth and Putera general assemblies last Tuesday, perpetrating irresponsible lies, falsehoods and sedition that the DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers to putting on the garb of a moderate extolling multi-racial co-operation in his speech at the 20th anniversary dinner of the Federation of Chinese Associations (Hua Zong) on Sunday night.

But Muhyiddin, like all the UMNO/Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders, could not see “the elephant in the room” for a whole week – the TI CPI 2011 on the worst ranking and lowest-ever score for Malaysia in 17 years, highlighting the tragic fact that corruption in 32 months under Najib is worse than five years under Tun Abdullah and 22 years under Tun Mahathir!

Worst ever PM

Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking and score, which ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt), from 1995 to 2011 are as follows:

Year CPI Rank CPI score 1995 23 5.28 1996 26 5.32 1997 32 5.01 1998 29 5.3 1999 32 5.1 2000 36 4.8 2001 36 5.0 2002 33 4.9 2003 37 5.2 2004 39 5.0 2005 39 5.1 2006 44 5.0 2007 43 5.1 2008 47 5.1 2009 56 4.5 2010 56 4.4 2011 60 4.3

The TI CPI 2011 with the 17-year worst-ever 60th ranking and lowest-ever 4.3 score cannot continue to be “the elephant in the room” for tomorrow's Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet must regard the TI CPI 2011 as a great national shame and slur and Malaysians expect a proper and commensurate response from the Prime Minister and the Cabinet tomorrow.

An explanation to the nation is overdue

Let Najib explain after the Cabinet meeting why despite the elevation of the Anti-Corruption Agency into a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with great increase of its budgets, staffing and resources as well as all the grandiloquent Transformation declarations and “People First, Performance Now” slogans , his 32 months as Prime Minister have been hit by the worst-ever TI CPI ranking and score in the past 17 years!

In the nine years from 1995 to 2003 under Tun Dr. Mahathir as Prime Minister, Malaysia’s TI CPI score struggled between 4.8 in 2000 to 5.32 in 1996 while the CPI ranking fell 14 places from No. 23 in 1995 to No. 37 in 2003.

In the five-year premiership of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia’s TI CPI score managed to keep to the half-way mark between 5.0 to 5.1 while the ranking fell 10 places from 37 in 2003 to 47 in 2008.

Najib should give a full and detailed explanation as to why after 32 months of his premiership, Malaysia has suffered the national ignominy of the worst-ever ranking of No. 60 and and lowest-eve score of 4.3 in TI CPI 2011 for the past 17 years.

Most important of all, what is the Cabinet response, strategy or “game-changer” to the TI CPI 2011 on Malaysia's worst ranking and lowest score in 17 years so that Malaysia could be one of the world's least corrupt nations?

Lim Kit Siang is the MP for Ipoh Timur