The Global Corruption Barometer for Asia 2020 has just been released by Transparency International and it reveals that 71percent of Malaysians think government corruption is a big problem.
"Out of all public institutions, Parliament, the police and government officials ranked the highest for perception of corruption by 36 percent, 30 percent and 28 percent of Malaysians surveyed, respectively," said Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) which released the survey.
The survey also finds that 39 percent of Malaysians believe that corruption is on the rise.
It is worth noting that the Asia-wide survey covered 17 countries with 20,000 people surveyed while the survey period for Malaysia was from July 2019 to June 2020.
During this time the Pakatan Harapan administration - which campaigned on an anti-corruption platform - was replaced by the Perikatan Nasional government which includes Umno, the most scandal-tainted party, among its members.
TI-M president Muhammad Mohan told Malaysiakini that the public wants closure on high-profile corruption cases.
"Generally, we still have a long way to go, although Harapan did the cleaning and public had faith in the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP), but now with the new government, execution is key but it is very slow.
"Although the MACC is going after public officials, what is important is the high profile cases which the public wants to see closure with convictions."
Among the high-profile cases include that of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was in July sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million after he was found guilty of seven charges relating to the misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International funds.
Najib also has an ongoing trial regarding corruption charges in relation to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, while a number of other Umno leaders such as party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and long time secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor also have ongoing corruption-related cases.
However, in June, former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, also from Umno, was acquitted of 46 charges of corruption and money laundering linked to timber concessions in the state.
The unusual time frame might explain why 67 percent of the respondents felt that the government was doing a good job of fighting corruption.
"It is likely this positive feedback is due to the aggressive actions taken by the enforcement authorities like the MACC, as well as policies put in place by the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre and the NACP," TI-M said.
When juxtaposed against the rest of Asia, it is interesting to note that seven percent of surveyed Malaysians admitted to having been bribed for their vote in an election. The figure is lower than the Asian average of 14 percent.
Some 15 percent of surveyed Malaysians have also utilised personal connections when accessing public services, which is lower than the average in Asia at 22 percent.
Also of interest is that a total of 68 percent of respondents still believed that ordinary people could make a difference in fighting corruption
"Hence, Malaysians are still very hopeful and have not lost faith in law enforcement or public service despite their experiences and it is clear that the rakyat believes that we can all fight corruption.
"However, there appears to be a slight dip in expectations when it comes to politicians and their officials of late. This may have to do with all the political instability, party jumping, allegations of money politics and corruption scandals involving political figures," Muhammed said.
"If the government wishes to improve its image among the rakyat it serves, it needs to get its act together.
"The NACP has to be implemented and enforced without delay or amendments, watering down or U-turns as observed with regard to the IPCMC Bill.
"A Political Finance Act also needs to be tabled in Parliament in order to limit and control money politics, party-hopping and election-related bribery," he added, saying that strong political will is needed if Malaysia is to be known for her integrity and not for corruption. - Mkini
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