By Stephanie Sta Maria - Free Malaysia TodayKUALA LUMPUR: Transparency International (TI) has slapped Malaysia with a historically low Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score of 4.4 for 2010.
The CPI score indicates the perceived level of corruption in a country Its scale is set from 0 to 10, with 0 being the most corrupt and 10 being the least.
Malaysia's CPI score plummeted to 4.5 last year from 5.1 in 2008. Its 2010 score has maintained its current ranking at 56 out of 176 countries.
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore have tied for first place with a CPI score of 9.3.
Unstable governments crowded the bottom rung with Afghanistan and Myanmar sharing a score of 1.4 and Somalia coming in last at 1.1.
According to TI-Malaysia, the positive measures taken by the government last year have been hampered by poor implementation and lack of confidence-building improvements, which indicated a lack of political will in eradicating corruption.
No 'big fish' in the net
Speaking at a press conference here, its secretary-general Ngooi Chiu-Ing listed a number of reasons that TI-Malaysia believed earned Malaysia its 2010 score.
“First is the perception of little progress in combating corruption,” he said.
“Second is the lack of political will in implementing anti-corruption measures and I think the perennial example here is no 'big fish' being brought to book.
“There is also poor progress in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco, no further action by the attorney-general in judicial appointment tampering, the practice of awarding mega projects and contracts without open tenders and no integrity pacts implemented to date,” he added.
TI-Malaysia also put forth recommendations for the government to improve its CPI score.
Among them is granting the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission more independence and autonomy as well as requiring it to report to parliamentary committees as practiced in South Korea.
Public disclosure of politician's assets, reforming of political financing and regulation of political parties and the promotion of freedom of information were also on the list.
“Integrity is one of the National Key Results Areas (NKRA) with the target of improvement of the CPI score as a KPI,” Ngooi pointed out.
“But overall the government must show stronger political will in fighting corruption and walk the talk,” he added.
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