Malaysia drops 5 rungs in annual global corruption index

 

The country ranked 62 out of 100 in the latest report – the lowest since the methodology was revised in 2012. (Bloomberg pic)

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s global rank in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 (CPI 2021) dropped five rungs, a stark contrast to the improvement seen after the 14th general election.

The country ranked 62 out of 100 in the latest report – the lowest since the methodology was revised in 2012. In 2020, it had ranked 57, a slight decrease from 51 in 2019.

In terms of score, Malaysia also dropped to 48 out of 100 from the 51 in 2020.

With a CPI score of 48 for the first time since 2102, Malaysia is now grouped among two-thirds of the countries globally which have scores that are below 50.

“The situation we are in is deeply worrying,” TI Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan said when presenting the index.

Muhammad Mohan.

With the latest drop in the score, Malaysia now ranks behind Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar. Singapore is the only Southeast Asian country to make it to the top 10 and was fifth in the world with a score of 85.

Muhammad said the five-point drop was significant as Malaysia’s scores and positions have been falling for the last two consecutive years, indicating that the country is heading in the wrong direction as far as fighting corruption, supporting human rights, and democracy are concerned.

“The issue is accountability and transparency. These two qualities are important for a nation to do well,” he said.

He said the limited action from the current and previous government to curb political corruption, strengthen Malaysia’s human rights record and a lack of political will to reform the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission were possible reasons for the deterioration.

“The continued adverse reports on wrongdoings and poor governance by government officials in the Auditor-General’s report which goes unpunished are also reasons for the drop,” he said.

Muhammad urged the government to take firm and clear steps necessary to address this decline and show its commitment to address and reverse the current CPI trajectory.

Muhammad added, however, that the bipartisanship demonstrated by the government and opposition Pakatan Harapan when they signed a memorandum of understanding outlining numerous reforms last year was a positive indication.

“I hope that lawmakers from both sides of the political divide remain committed and implement the agreed reforms before July 2022,” he said.

The CPI was developed by consolidating scores from a pool of up to 13 independent sources such as the Bertelsmann Transformation Index and the World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey. - FMT