Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has urged MACC chief Azam Baki to relinquish his position to make way for a replacement that can boost Malaysia's ranking in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
Failure, said Lim, would likely result in China and Indonesia overtaking Malaysia in several years.
In a statement today, Lim said the latest TI CPI had scored Malaysia worse – alongside Argentina, Turkey, Mexico and Venezuela – than when the index was first started in 1995.
"Countries which had been down on the list of the TI CPI ranking in the first series in 1995, like China, Thailand, India and Indonesia, were fast catching up to Malaysia's level, which had regressed since 1995.
"Fortunately, this trajectory was stopped when the Pakatan Harapan government took over, and in the TI CPI 2019, Malaysia achieved the best TI CPI performance in 25 years with a single-year improvement of six points for TI CPI score and 10 placings for TI CPI ranking – a ranking of No 51 and score of 53 out of the 100.
"Now we are back on the slippery slope of corruption as before the 14th general election on May 9, 2018, and the worst is yet to come from Azam-gate and worsening of the system of integrity in public life," said Lim.
Lim projected that at Malaysia's current trajectory, China and Indonesia – which have been making strides on the TI CPI –would overtake Malaysia by 2025.
The MACC's reputation has taken a hit recently after Azam was found to have held more than two million warrants in a public listed company in 2016, when he was the commission's investigations director.
This might be a violation of civil service rules that bar government staff from owning more than RM100,000 in equity in any company.
Azam's reputation was further eroded after the Securities Commission debunked his claims that the warrants were transacted by his brother.
Malaysian laws penalise those guilty of proxy trading, but in this case, the SC said there was none.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has urged Malaysians to accept the SC's findings. - Mkini
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