KUCHING, Jan 28: Don’t expect the people to buy excuse that Malaysia’s declining corruption perceptions index (CPI) is due to recent crackdown on corruption cases by enforcement agencies, Dr Kelvin Yii tells Federal Law Minister Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
The Bandar Kuching MP disagreed that the public’s perceptions that corruption is rampant in the country are because of wide publicity in the fight of corruption cases.
Instead, he said, Malaysia’s dropping CPI which indicates high levels of corruption is proof of corruption that should be treated seriously and not shoved aside with excuses.
Earlier this week, he added, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) said Malaysia is placed at number 62 out of 100 countries in TI’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 (CPI 2021).
“Instead of acknowledging and identifying the core problem, the Minister supposedly in charge continues to find excuses rather than fixing the rampant problem of corruption in the country.
“When Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power, the government went on a crackdown on corruption at the highest levels. This caught international headlines and got even more widespread publicity.
“If we base it on the logic of the Minister (Wan Junaidi), our CPI should have dropped drastically then, but instead we have seen the results where it did not worsen our CPI, but actually improved drastically,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Yii stressed that ministers including the Prime Minister must realise the issue at hand and stop making excuses before Malaysia continues to become a laughing stock of the international community that will affect investors confidence.
“The first thing they should do, is to remove Azam Baki as the MACC Chief and carry out a transparent investigation to restore public’s confidence on the institutions that is suppose to safeguard the county against corruption,” he suggested.
He pointed out that they must also stop all kinds of intimidation and investigations against opposition elected representatives and activists that demanded Azam Baki to resign.
He opined that this will damage the CPI even further as it is perceived that the whole state apparatus is being used to protect this one man at the top even though he was caught lying to the public.
“Then they must reinstate many of the reforms policies done under PH and remove ‘scheme of things’ and give out positions as political rewards including political appointments to country’s top GLCs (government-linked companies) such as recent appointment in Pharmaniaga.
“If nothing is done and they keep pretending the problem does not exist, our country will continue to be left behind.
“We have deteriorated as a country in comparison to many of our neighbours who took a hard stand on corruption, but instead we seem to be embracing it and allowing it to grow in our society,” he said. — DayakDaily
