TTF: Years of media mudslinging campaigns, billions upon billions spent to oust leaders from “the utterly kelptocratic Barisan Nasional,” and what do you get?
A country that moves up a mere notch in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
So much for Tun Dr Mahathir’s “corrupt free Malaysia Baru.”
Let’s take a listen to the speech Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta delivered at the the Anti-Corruption Conference in Bomas, Kenya on the 15th of January 2019.
The president was probably referring to how ministers benefitted from the lopsided toll concession deals that Mahathir’s government signed in 1986.
That year, Mahathir privatised the construction and maintenance of the North-South Highway to his crony, Halim Saad, for a period of 30 years.
But for unknown reasons, he got the GoM absorb construction costs despite letting Halim collect tolls for that period and agreeing to a 10% increment of rates every three years.
Prime Ministers who succeeded Mahathir were forced to stretch the concession period to minimise hikes in toll rates.
Can you now see where the “excess benefits” the Kenyan President spoke of is coming from?
Thanks to Mahathir, no matter who becomes Transport Minister, there are bound to be some “extra dollars” entering his (or her) pocket.
So how can one expect Transparency International to rate us better when our government is being run on corrupt policies designed by Mahathir in the eighties to enrich his cronies?
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has moved up to 61st spot among the 180 countries in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2018, one notch higher from the previous year.
Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar said Malaysia, however, retained the score of 47 out of 100 points on the CPI’s survey.
The CPI scores and ranks are based on 13 surveys and expert assessments which measures the perceived level of corruption in the country’s public sector on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupted) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
“Among ASEAN countries, Malaysia is among the top three after Singapore and Brunei,” he told a press conference in announcing Malaysia’s CPI result for 2018, which was released by the global anti-graft coalition, Transparency International (TI) worldwide, here today.
He said Malaysia stood below Singapore (3rd) and Brunei (31st), but above Indonesia (89th), Thailand (99th), the Philippines (99th), Vietnam (117th), Myanmar (132nd), Laos (132nd) and Cambodia (161st).
Worldwide, Denmark is in the top spot with 88 points, while New Zealand ranked second with 87 points. Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland shared the third spot with 85 points, making them among the top five countries in the index list.
Akhbar said the bottom last countries were Sudan (16 points), North Korea and Yemen (14 points), South Sudan and Syria (13 points) and Somalia (10 points).
He said TI-M also called on the government and country leaders to provide the leadership and strong political will to drive the message of zero tolerance for graft through solid actions.
“All politicians and senior government servants, such as Attorney-General, Chief Secretary to the Government and Inspector-General of Police should also declare their total assets…it should be made compulsory,” he said.
He also believed that Malaysia is able to jump to a better spot in the future if the new government maintained its full-force momentum of fighting corruption and walk the talk.
Malaysia today launched the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) to step up the war against corruption.
Source: NST Online
