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The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has come a long way from its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency, winning accolades from international bodies like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), among others.

In recent weeks, too, it has scored big on the anti-corruption front, arresting and charging some 18 senior and mid-level officers from the Customs Department for alleged corruption.

The current structures of the MACC allow it to be independent, neutral, open and transparent in investigating corruption.

However, the perception of the people is that not much has happened on the anti-corruption front.

People feel that rampant corruption is still a way of life in our country.

This is the perception and it must change and the MACC must work harder to charge the perception of the people.

It takes two hands to clap and likewise in corruption it also takes two parties - the giver and the accepter - for corruption to take place.

Both actors must be severe penalised.

The giver must be prosecuted while the taker must also be penalised if corruption is to be checked.

It is impossible to eradicate corruption entirely but it can be checked and kept under control as many countries have shown.

Eternal vigilance is the answer to combat corruption.

MACC has shown a good report card with 82 percent of cases investigated and completed within the same year while conviction rate exceed 80 percent, compared to 54 percent in 2009.

More than 30 initiatives have been implemented under the Transformation Programme to improve MACC’s standard operating procedure (SOP).

Over 4,000 information bites with corruption as an element were received and 289 people prosecuted, of which 119 were civil servants.

We have a long way to go to combat corruption in all its dimensions but for now our MACC has done well within constrains.

Syabas to MACC, do better next year.


SIVARAAJH CHANDRAN is national MIC Youth leader.

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