MACC turning rogue? Unsurprising as Najib and Umno are not serious about corruption

The UMNO-BN government has busied itself upgrading the resources of relevant authorities and enforcement bodies to fight corruption. But that's about it, the whole endeavor just stops there. Such efforts are plainly cosmetic and for show, it is like buying all the necessary the weapons even at overly high prices to fight an enemy, and then refusing to pull the trigger when confronted.

The whole exercise becomes useless and in the end, the upgrading of the National Bureau of Investigation Act (NBI) (1974) to the Anti-Corruption Corruption Agency (ACA) Act (1997) to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act (2008), has all been for nought. If anything, the MACC is now seen as even worst and more under the thumb of top UMNO leaders than its predecessors. Certainly, neither the NBI nor the ACA has been tainted by two mysterious deaths in two consecutive years at its premises that still look like murder cases despite going through intensive inquests that found otherwise.

The MACC's failure to take action on what appear to be clear-cut cases, for example against Salleh Ismail, the husband of Shahrizat Jalil, in the increasingly scandalous RM250 million debacle speaks volumes of its lack independence. To such low levels has the MACC plunged that it was even accused of leaking false news to help Salleh wriggle out of trouble. No wonder people lose faith in Malaysia. When the guardian of a nation's integrity such as the MACC turns rogue, you know that the country is lost. Something must be done quickly before rigor mortis sets in.

Declining trend, worst under Najib's watch

Therefore, to get a good gauge of whether UMNO-BN and Prime Minister Najib Razak have been successful in fighting corruption and how determined they really are, one cannot rely on pro-government sources of information within Malaysia. Like the MACC, these sources know only too well which side their bread is buttered on. It is no surprise that established third-party surveyors including the German based Transparency International (TI) and the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) have much greater credibility

On March 14, 2007, the Star Online carried the headline stating “Malaysia goes up in corruption ranking”. This gave the impression that Malaysia had improved but it was the other way round because the grading system works with zero as the best possible score and 10 as the worst. Malaysia was ranked 7th with a score of 6.25. The country was perceived by foreign businessmen to be more corrupt in 2007 compared to 2006, according to the annual PERC survey.

PERC managing director Robert Broadfoot also said “Companies usually base their investment decisions on perception, not reality. If companies perceive the situation in a particular country to be difficult, then that is likely to work against their decision to invest.”

On September 24, 2008,  the New Straits Times reported Malaysia's Corruption Perception Index was unchanged from last year. Again, this was a case of 'twisted' reporting. After all, as the PERC boss had said, perception is everything! The truth though is that while the score remained the same, Malaysia had however slid from 43rd to 47th place in the ranking of 180 countries. The president of Transparency International Malaysia at that time, Ramon Navaratnam, described the development as disconcerting.

In 2009, the TI Corruption Perception Index (CPI) reported that Malaysia’s corruption level had risen significantly and was now at 56, its lowest ever level.The 2009 CPI ranked Malaysia's corruption at 4.5.

On Oct 10, 2010 the Star Online reported that Malaysia's CPI was slightly lower than the previous year, but the deterioration was small at 4.4 compared to 4.5 a year ago. New TI-M president Paul Low explained that the score, which indicates "10" as no corruption and "0" as extremely corrupt, fell short of the 4.9 target the Najib administration had set for itself in January. Najib had planned to achieve this by making "integrity" part of his Key Productivity Index in the National Key Results Area (NKRA). It did not work.

"The efforts by Najib through the NKRA have not shown any results because perception takes a while to change," Paul Low told a press conference when announcing the 2010 CPI.

Recently on December 2, 2011 the Star Online reported that Malaysia ranked 60th in the CPI, a further drop of four places from last year. The country scored 4.3 on the survey which gauges the perceived level of public sector corruption among 183 countries. Malaysia is ranked third among ASEAN behind Singapore (9.3) and Brunei (6.3). Remember country ranking - the higher the number the worse the corruption and in 2011, Malaysia fell from 56 to 60. Score - the lower the worse the corruption, and in 2011, Malaysia scored 4.3 worse than the 2010's 4.4.

Another big Najib lie

Therefore the claim by Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani, an undersecretary in the Foreign Affairs ministry, that Najib was taking "real action" against corruption is laughable. He was rebutting an article Testing Malaysia's Promisesby ex-US envoy John Malott that basically accused the Najib administration of allowing corruption to fester for political reasons, including survival.

In a statement issued to the Wall Street Journal, and to back up his claims, Ahmad Rozian referred to the passing of a new Whistleblower Act, the setting up of  a special corruption court and the launching of a corporate integrity pledge for businesses as real commitments from Najib. But so far, no one has seen Najib 'pull the trigger' on the corrupt as yet.

Instead to Malaysia's great shame, its national corruption agency has been accused of colluding with the Umno-owned media - leaking false and inaccurate information to help the husband of senior Umno leader to wriggle free from corruption charges and to absolve itself from the embarrassment of when it has not taken action.

From NBI to ACA to MACC, but what has the structural evolution ever done for the fight against corruption in Malaysia. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Prime Minister Najib Razak has not only failed his duty to uphold integrity in the country, he has once again lied to the international community by getting a flunkey to trumpet in black and white in the Wall Street Journal his anti-corruption credentials.

More and more public money is paid to support the fancy offices of the MACC and to pay its pampered senior staff, but they are not at all grateful to their bosses - the people of the country - and instead repay their countrymen with a backhanded slap.

When the national corruption agency itself turns corrupt, and colludes with the political leaders, you know then that everyday Malaysians are getting ripped off stiffed big time. Sad to say, the buck stops with the chief executive of the country - Najib Razak - whatever he says or excuses he makes.

Malaysia Chronicle