Kit Siang also wants release of Harapan govt's 2018 reforms report

Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang has joined the chorus demanding the release of the report by the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC).

This, he said, would allow the public to hear the views of various civil society groups on strengthening the system of governance and rule of law.

The IRC was set up in 2018 during the first Pakatan Harapan federal government under then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It produced a report which touched on areas such as anti-corruption.

The IRC members included former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan, retired Court of Appeal judges KC Vohrah and Mah Weng Kwai, National Patriots Association president Mohamed Arshad Raji, and constitutional law expert Shad Saleem Faruqi.

In a statement, Lim (above) said it was too late for the new government, under the administration of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, to improve Malaysia’s rank in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report for 2022, which will be released on Tuesday.

However, he said Anwar’s government should do its utmost to ensure that next year’s report is the “best for Malaysia”.

He said that in order for Malaysia to not become “a country of thieves led by thieves”, the next parliamentary session needs to lay down a new charter for Malaysia to become one of the top countries in the world in public integrity and the fight against corruption.

“The February and March Parliament (session) must discuss and adopt a new public integrity plan to make Malaysia one of the top 30 countries in the world in the annual Transparency International’s CPIs.”

Last year, Malaysia scored 48 points in the 2021 CPI released by Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M).

This was a three-point drop compared to 51 the previous year and 53 in 2019.

Deteriorating Corruption Index

The deterioration of the score was reflected in Malaysia’s global ranking which dropped to the 62nd spot from 57th in 2020.

“If the TI CPI 2022 for Malaysia is worse than the TI 2021, then it highlights the uphill battle for the Anwar unity government in the fight against corruption,” Lim said.

The former Iskandar Puteri MP said that Malaysia lost to five countries since the first annual TI CPI 1995 - Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, and Greece.

He questioned if, by the end of this decade, Malaysia will lose out to another eight countries if it does not work towards anti-corruption.

The countries, he said, were China, Hungary, India, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey.

“In the first TI CPI 1995 list for 41 countries, Malaysia was ranked No 23 with a score of 5.28 out of 10. We have since lost out to five countries in the TI CPI – Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, and Greece.

“We are now ranked No 62 out of 180 countries with a score of 48 out of 100 marks – the lowest rank for Malaysia and near the lowest score.

“What is in store for Malaysia in the TI CPI 2022 – will Malaysia crash through the lowest rank of 62 and even a lower score of 47 out of 100 marks which Malaysia achieved in 2017 and 2018 under the last years of the (former prime minister) Najib (Abdul Razak’s) kleptocratic government?” he questioned.

On Friday, the G25 civil society organisation called for the release of the IRC report.

G25 had a hand in contributing to the report on four themes - parliamentary select committees, invigorating economic confidence in Malaysia, political financing, and the administration of matters pertaining to Islam in the country.

In 2020, Ambiga questioned the government’s apparent inaction over the report.

The finalised report was submitted to the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) at the time, as well as to the Prime Minister’s Department in July 2018.

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