Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has shot himself in the foot by criticising Transparency International's (TI) defence corruption index as being biased , said PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli.

NONE "Only in Malaysia would we have a senior minister belittling the corruption index (by an organisation) which his own prime minister has used as a yard stick for his administration," he told a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

"TI’s research methodologies are accepted and used worldwide. Indeed Najib Abdul Razak himself had used the Corruption Perception Index pioneered and developed by TI as the main measure of his government's anti-corruption targets."

azlan While he acknowledged Zahid’s (left) argument that the nations under scrutiny are administered differently as to the limits and levels of authority of defence management bodies, he rejected the minister's argument that this has created bias.

The core principles remain the same and are subject to internationally accepted best practice, Rafizi insisted.

"Buying a plane is still buying a plane," he said.

What is lacking in Malaysia, as pointed out in the TI index. are transparency and checks and balances.

This has made defence procurements highly secretive, obfuscated and open to opportunities for corruption, he claimed.

Malaysia has been ranked dismally in TI’s Defence Corruption Index, which had triggered an immediate denial by Zahid, who refused to accept such evaluations which he claimed were biased because of their methodologies which do not account for differences in the administrations of the countries researched.

TI-Malaysia today held a press conference to refute Zahid’s claims.

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