The Malaysian Insight

THE majority of Malaysians think corruption in government is worsening and will rise in the coming years based on a survey Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M).

The survey was conducted between July 2019 to June 2020, when two different government were in power during that period, the anti-corruption watchdog said today.

“71% of Malaysians feel that the government corruption is a big problem.

“Out of all public institutions, Parliament, the Police and Government officials ranked the highest for perception of corruption, with 36%, 30% and 28% respectively.

“Also 36% of Malaysian that were surveyed found that the Members of Parliament to be corrupted and 39% expects the rate of corruption to rise,” the survey stated.

TI-M president Dr Muhammad Mohan said the negative perception towards politicians and government could be linked to ongoing political instability, party hopping, allegations of money politics, and corruption scandals involving political figures.

The findings for Malaysia were part of the Global Corruption Barometer for Asia 2020 which covered 17 countries and a total of 20,000 participants.

Despite the negative impressions of government, 67% of Malaysians also felt the government was doing a good job fighting corruption.

Muhammad said this may be due to the actions taken by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) against some key figures, as well as policies by the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) and the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP).

“67% of surveyed Malaysians have faith the MACC was doing a good job in curbing corruption, which is slightly higher than the average in Asia of 63%,” said the survey. In terms of personal experiences of corruption, just 7% of Malaysians surveyed said they had been bribed for their vote in an election, compared to the 14% average for Asia.

On using personal connections in the public service, 15% of Malaysians surveyed said they did so, which is lower than the average in Asia of 22%.

The findings also showed that among the countries surveyed, India had the highest percentage of public service users who paid a bribe in the past 12 months with 39%, whereas Maldives and Japan had the lowest rate at just 2%.

On a positive note for Malaysia, the survey also showed that 68% of citizens still believed that ordinary people can make a difference in fighting corruption, which is higher than the average in Asia of 62%. – November 25, 2020.