YOURSAY | ‘MACC must first clean up its own house’

 YOURSAY | ‘I am jealous of Singapore which has come out within the top 10.’

M'sia falls in corruption perception index for second year in a row

MACC vows 'serious attention' after poor corruption index score

Ravinder: Malaysia’s score in the annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has fallen for the second time in a row.

The MACC needs more than a spring cleaning. It proudly claims to be the only enforcement agency with five oversight bodies – the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, Complaints Committee, Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel, Operations Review Panel and Special Committee on Corruption.

Yet, how many of their own (some in top posts) have been caught for various crimes? This reflects very poorly on the No 1 person in the MACC for being unable to maintain strict discipline in the agency, like a school head unable to keep unruly children in line.

So, MACC, please clean up your own house first.

OCT: Malaysia has all the grand plans against corruption. However, they remain as just that - plans.

Case in point, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki, who has been implicated with corruption and allegedly broke the rules which the MACC is trusted to uphold. The government is apparently protecting him with all its resources.

Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) has recommended some proposals to improve Malaysia corruption index. Will the government look into them?

History has shown the government has not jailed any of its top officers for corruption. In fact, the government goes all out to protect them as in the case of Azam.

These corruption cases are, somehow, not important and insignificant. Does the prime minister care what the world thinks about Malaysia corrupt practices?

Koel: I’m not surprised by the drop in ranking. How many political and civil service elites and their family members have been charged with corruption charges?

How many of these have escaped with charges dropped or getting discharged not amount to acquittal, and worst of all, the "Oops, sorry, I’ll pay back the money" deal?

Malaysian law seems to be feudal in its application when confronted with elite wrongdoers. Only the poor and the commoners are found guilty and made to do time. And because of this perceived feudalism, we will continue to see worse crimes in our lifetime.

All Things Considered: TI-M president Muhammad Mohan sounded apologetic in the report. Just call a spade a spade.

Malaysia is high on corruption and there is no need to lace it with saying Malaysia fares well in comparison with other Asean countries. It is foolish to compare with countries that have been steeped in corruption for decades.

In this country, there is corruption now at every level and in every nook and corner, and even the chief graft buster is allegedly corrupt and arrogant - a deadly combination. The country is sinking under the weight of corruption, incompetence, race and religion.

One more thing, TI-M can come up with all the reports you want; who cares and who is going to bother? It is always business as usual in good old Malaysia.

IndigoKite6964: Here are the four things we can do to better our score.

1. Disband and reform the MACC and we can up two or even three points.

2. Sack Azam for violating the civil servant's code of conduct and we will add another point.

3. Separate the role of the attorney-general and create an independent public prosecutor's office (directly under Parliament) - up another two points.

4. Make the appointment and dismissal of the chief justice a parliamentary function - up two points.

And there are quite a few more we can do, but the above alone should put us back on track. However, there isn't a political will to do so.

A complete overhaul of the current government will be necessary if we want to have any sort of improvement in the corruption index. We are almost at the bottom of the table, quite like our football team in the international arena.

OCT: Indeed, if the MACC wants to pay more attention to raising the corruption index score, all they need to do is to catch the big elephant in the room. There is no need to look far.

When Azam has been implicated in corruption and no action is taken against him, it speaks volumes about the sincerity of MACC mission to improve the corruption index. Clean up MACC first before promising the moon and stars.

There were great plans on the fight against corruption during the anti-corruption forum in Kuala Lumpur last year. However, these plans were dead on arrival.

When the prime minister has no intention of getting rid of corruption, there is nothing the MACC can do. Although it did catch some big fish, somehow the big fish was allowed to live another day.

Next year, the corruption index for Malaysia will drop even more if the Azam case is not properly addressed.

RR: The rakyat have been consistently talking of corruption at high places for years, and so was TI-M.

It is strange that the MACC is only now making a statement that it will “pay serious attention to the country's two-year consecutive drop in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI)”.

Malaysia dropped five spots in the index to 62 of the 180 countries. There must be a strong political will to get the MACC to report to Parliament and not to the prime minister.

The chief commissioner of MACC should be appointed by the parliamentary select committee. This is if we are serious in our fight against corruption.

FairMalaysian: Just do these two things and we will see a turnaround:

1. Get a MACC head who means business. This head must not be nominated by the prime minister. Such a person must come from the public and should be vetted by a parliamentary select committee.

2. The MACC head must be answerable to Parliament and not to the prime minister.

Frankly, it will be a dream for any improvement in the rankings. I am jealous of Singapore which has come out within the top 10. Why so wide a disparity between our country and our neighbour? - Mkini