Malaysia has failed to any headway in its fight against the scourge of corruption, said opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.

According to Transparency International's (TI) latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) , Malaysia has improved its overall score from 4.9 to 5.2. But it slipped four places in the country ranking, from 33 to 37.

The score is also lower than in three of the nine years for which the index was computed - 5.28 in 1995, 5.32 in 1996 and 5.3 in 1998.

"The (report) is the latest proof that 46 years after Independence, the time has come for an all-out war against corruption," said DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang.

The CPI score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption in 133 countries as seen by business people, academics and risk analysts. The rating ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

TI, an international anti-corruption watchdog, introduced the index in 1995 to assess the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist in the countries surveyed, based on 17 separate studies by 13 independent institutions.

PM's speech

Lim ( left ) referred to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's speech in June which argued that Malaysia must compare its anti-graft record with that of Finland, which has topped CPI index as the least corrupt country for the past three years.

"Malaysia does not lack anti-corruption laws, infrastructure, personnel and expertise to make the quantum leap to be among the world's least corrupt countries," said Lim.

However, what the country is sorely lacking are the political will and stamina to fight graft.

"If (incoming prime minister) Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) is prepare to inject the political will and stamina for a full-scale war against corruption and to create a new culture of political integrity with zero tolerance for corruption, there is no reason why Malaysia cannot begin to make leaps and bounds into the higher rankings," Lim said

The CPI ranked Finland (9.7) first on the list, followed by Iceland (9.6), Denmark and New Zealand (9.5 each) and Singapore (9.4).

At the other end of the scale, Bangladesh (1.3) was ranked last, with Nigeria (1.4), Haiti (1.5), Burma and Paraguay (1.6) marginally ahead.