I have been reading with interest the letters on corruption in Malaysia. Most are emotional and convey an extreme dissatisfaction at the perceived, or perhaps, the real state of corruption in the country.

I would like to relate the results of a survey done by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy. The survey found Malaysia to be the fourth least-corrupt country in Asia after Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Malaysia was better than some more developed countries like Taiwan and South Korea. Are we great? Perhaps not. There is certainly room for improvement.

At the same time, are we that corrupt? If the letter by Jared Lee is used as a benchmark, one would think that we are in the depths of the corruption abyss.

I believe that facts are very important here. Corruption is always relative. No country has zero corruption. Once we have a proper benchmark, we need to push ahead to improve the situation.