MP SPEAKS There is no way that Malaysia can catapult to the “top 10 or 12” of the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index without catching any “big fishes”, like what is happening in France, Indonesia, the Philippines and in China.
Anti-corruption agencies in France, China, Indonesia and the Philippines created shock waves in their countries in the past 48 hours when they caught “big fishes” and took action against “grand corruption”.
In France, former president Nicolas Sarkozy ( left ) has just been charged with corruption and influence peddling after being questioned for 15 hours, marking the first time a former head of state of France has been taken into custody in a criminal investigation.
If convicted of those charges, Sarkozy could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
In the Philippines, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was suspended from Congress as Pampanga representative for 90 days pending her trial for graft over the award of a US$329 million (RM1.055 billion) construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE in the National Broadband Network (NBN) controversy when she was president of the Philippines in 2007.
In Indonesia, the Jakarta Corruption Court handed down a historic sentence on Monday evening by sending 53-year-old former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence in the court’s history.
The former Golkar Party politician was found guilty of accepting 57 billion Indonesian rupiah (RM15.068 million) in bribes from a number of regional heads to influence decisions on election disputes during his tenure in the court.
The life sentence for Akil marks the first time the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of Indonesia has successfully convinced the court to sentence a defendant facing corruption or money-laundering charges to life in prison since its establishment in 2003.
In Beijing, China’s corruption crackdown snared the highest military officer in more than six decades when the Chinese Communist Party politburo meeting, presided by President Xi Jinping, expelled Xu Caihou, a former vice-chairperson of the Central Military Commission and a retired commander of the People’s Liberation Army.
With the removal of Xu’s legal protections as a senior cadre, his case has been handed over to military prosecutors.
What has Malaysia's anti-corruption campaign to show, compared with these major anti-corruption developments in France, Philippines, Indonesia and China?
Complete silence, or fanciful statements
Absolutely nothing, as there is either complete silence from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on the outcome of his five-year anti-corruption campaign, or just fanciful statements.
For example, the recent one by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) head Abu Kassim Mohamed ( right ) in his interview with The Edge that he aspires for Malaysia to be in the “top 10 or 12” of the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
As MACC has not caught a single “big fish” in Najib’s five-year premiership – apart from causing the still unresolved deaths of Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbaini at its premises – it boggles the imagination that Abu Kassim could even consider Malaysia to be ranked in “top 10 or 12” in the TI CPI, as compared with proactive anti-corruption campaigns in France, China, Indonesia and the Philippines in their recent actions against “grand corruption”.
I am reminded of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s stand on the TI CPI. When the TI CPI was first introduced in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No 23 out of 41 countries.
I can still remember the condemnation by Mahathir ( right ), who was prime minister at the time, who accused it as part of the Western "white men" conspiracy to demonise Asian countries as the global anti-corruption NGO was headquartered in Berlin.
However, in the months before he stepped down as prime minister in October 2003, Mahathir was singing a different tune, suggesting that Malaysia must compare its public behaviour with Finland, which came out as the world's least corrupt and most ethical country in the TI CPI for three consecutive years at that time.
'Corruption worse than in my 22 years as PM'
Mahathir is on public record as saying that corruption in Malaysia today is worse than his 22 years as prime minister, from 1981-2003.
The TI CPI annual series seems to vindicate Mahathir.
Malaysia’s latest TI CPI ranking has improved by one step, placed 53 out of 177 countries compared to 54th ranking in 2012, while the TI CPI score has improved to 50/100 compared with the previous year’s 49/100.
However, the 19-year series of the TI CPI annual rankings from 1995-2013 highlights a most shocking result, that Najib five-year premiership has always registered a lower TI CPI ranking when compared with the time under the two previous prime ministers, Mahathir and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
This is illustrated by the following chart on TI CPI 1995-2013:
Malaysia cannot expect any significant improvement in our TI CPI positions unless and until the Najib administration gets serious in waging an all-out war against “grand corruption” and Malaysia’s counterparts of Sarkozy, Gloria Arroyo, Akil Mochtar and Xu Caihou are brought to the courts of justice.
LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah.
