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Memorandum: ACA should accept the challenge of Dr. Mahathir and draw up a 10-year Anti-Corruption Action Plan to compare with Finland and be ranked among the world’s five least corrupt countries in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index by 2013


Memorandum
-
presented to the ACA together with DAP MPs Tan Kok Wai (Cheras), Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang) and Teresa Kok (Seputih)  at the ACA Putrajaya Office
b
y Lim Kit Siang

(PutrajayaMonday): 

Dato’ Zulkipli bin Mat Noor,
Director-General,
Anti-Corruption Agency,
Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Y.Bhg Dato” Zulkipli,

Memorandum: ACA should accept the challenge of Dr. Mahathir and draw up a 10-year Anti-Corruption Action Plan to compare with Finland and be ranked among the world’s five least corrupt countries in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index by 2013

The 2001 Anti-Corruption Agency Annual Report states as follows:

  • Vision – “Towards the creation of a corruption-free Malaysian society based on high spiritual and moral values”;
  • Mission -  “To eradicate  corruption,  abuses of power and deviations  in Malaysia”;
  • Objective – “To  combat corruption and  the abuse of power  through concerted and  continuous efforts”.

The  ACA was established 36 years ago on 1st October 1967 but it does not have much to show for its stated Vision, Mission or Objective as it has not dared to set for itself public and measurable targets and benchmarks to enable an annual or  periodic  assessment  of  their  success.  

At present, the only yardstick or benchmark to assess the performance of ACA is the Transparency International’s (TI) annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI).  Although Malaysia has improved its country placing from No.36  out of 91 countries in TI’s CPI 2001  to No. 33 out of 102 countries in the 2002 CPI, Malaysia has joined the group of 70 countries which scored less than 5 out of a clean score of 10, suggesting high levels of perceived corruption in government and public administration. 

Nine countries scored 9 or higher out of a clean score of 10 in the 2002 CPI, indicating a very low level of perceived corruption, led by Finland 9.7, Denmark and New Zealand 9.5, Iceland 9.4, Singapore and Sweden 9.3, Canada, Luxembourg and Netherlands 9.0.

In the 2001 CPI, although Malaysia was ranked No. 36, it scored 5 and joined 36 countries with low level of perceived corruption – a position it failed to maintain in the 2002 CPI when it scored 4.9 and slipped into the group of 70 countries with high levels of perceived corruption in government and public administration.

In Asia, Malaysia (4.9) was  perceived as more corrupt than Singapore (9.3),  Hong Kong (8.2), Japan (7.1) and Taiwan (5.6) and better than South Korea (4.5), Sri Lanka (3.7), China (3.5), Thailand (3.2), India (2.7), Philippines (2.6), Vietnam (2.4),  Indonesia (1.9) and Bangladesh (1.2).

Malaysia can take no comfort from being perceived as less corrupt than nine other Asian countries, when we should aim to be ranked among Asia’s  top first or second country  perceived to be the least corrupt with a score of more than 9 out of a clean score of 10.

The recent  Transparency International Malaysia National Integrity Medal award ceremony on 28th June 2003  to honour posthumously Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Ismail Mohamed Ali for their unquestionable integrity  throughout their services to the nation should be   a painful event not only to the present generation of Malaysians but also to the ACA as it raised the very pertinent question as to  why Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman’s 13-year  premiership could produce two recipients from his Cabinet  but not a single Minister from  the 22 years of  the current premiership of Dr. Mahathir for this honour.

In his address at the ceremony, the  Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad made the  startling confession about one  major downside of  his 22-year premiership when he lamented that the country had “seen a steady deterioration and erosion of ethical standards of behaviour in both the public and business sectors, with predictable consequences for sustainable human development, not only here in Malaysia, but unfortunately in many of the countries we look up to”. 

Dr. Mahathir sought to justify why no “sharks” of corruption had been arrested and punished during his long premiership by challenging the belief that the “big fish” must be caught while the “minnows” were considered unimportant, contending  that this  was wrong as the culture of corruption began with the minnows. He said: “Besides, when corruption is tolerated among the minnows, the big fish are encouraged and society accepts the practice, and it becomes a culture.”  

This was a weak and even  pathetic excuse for the lack of ACA action against the “big fish” during the past two decades, and totally contradictory to the promise made by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when he was Acting Prime Minister in the two fateful months in 1997 when shepherding  the Anti-Corruption Bill 1997 with the pledge to the nation: "Now is the time to act…we will catch the big ones and we will catch the small ones". 

Ironically and tragically, the only “big fish” to be caught during the 22-year Mahathir premiership was  none other than Anwar Ibrahim himself, who was convicted and jailed for six years for a corruption offence which did not involve a single sen or had anything to do with any monetary or material consideration whatsoever! 

During the first major financial scandal of the premiership of Dr. Mahathir, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal which caused the murder of an up-and-coming, young, conscientious and model management  executive, Jalil  Ibrahim, the Prime Minister  made the prophetic comment that it was “a heinous crime without criminals” – as since then, the “heinous crimes” of financial scandals had continued to increase in  scale reaching tens of billions of ringgit but all completely  “without criminals”! 

The latest example of this culture and tradition of “heinous crime without criminals” is the  RM140 million East Coast school computer laboratory fiasco and scandal where construction was not only behind schedule by two years,  574 of the 600 computer laboratories built are not safe and in danger of collapse – with everybody disclaiming responsibility, led by the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad proclaiming that the Education Ministry was “totally blameless”.

The tradition and culture of “heinous crimes without criminals” is an indictment on the effectiveness, efficiency, independence and professionalism of the ACA to combat corruption, abuses of power, criminal breach of trust and all forms of deviations.

The ACA should end its target-less Vision, Mission and Objective and rise up to the challenges posed by both  Dr. Mahathir and the new Prime Minister in three months’ time, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for a corruption-free Malaysia comparable with Finland.

In his speech at the Transparency International Malaysia National Integrity Medal award ceremony, Dr.  Mahathir said that Malaysia must compare its public behaviour with Finland, which came out as the world’s least corrupt and most ethical country in the past three years  in TI’s CPI. 

He said: “I know we have some way to go, but given the level of public support the Anti-Corruption Agency now enjoys, and the wide-ranging anti-corruption measures now firmly in place, we can get to be among the highest ranking countries.” 

Dr. Mahathir’s recognition of the work of TI, the global anti-corruption NGO, was most welcome for this was  the first time in seven years that he had  any good word for it or its annual CPI. 

When TI released its first CPI for 1995, placing Malaysia as No. 23 out of 41 countries, Mahathir denounced the Berlin-based organization and its CPI for their  European bias and ulterior agenda against the non-White world, asserting that  European countries were  more corrupt than any other and that if a similar watchdog group was set up in Malaysia, it would find that countries in Europe were the most corrupt! 

Dr. Mahathir’s belated recognition and commendation of TI was  all the more pertinent  as in the past seven years, Malaysia’s ranking on the TI’s CPI had  fallen well below the original 23rd placing, viz. 23rd in 1995, 26th in 1996, 32nd in 1997, 29th in 1998, 32nd in 1999,  36th in 2000  and 2001 and  33rd in 2002.

 

In contrast, Finland has been able to maintain its position as among the world’s  least corrupt nations, positioned in the fourth  place  in 1995 and 1996,  moved up to second place in  1997, 1998 and  1999,  and from 2000, ranked first as the least corrupt nation in the world   for three  consecutive years to  2002.  The TI’s 2003 CPI should be released within a month.

 

At the  Ethics and Integrity Conference last August, the Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had declared that the government possessed ample political will to ensure that the scourge of corruption was eradicated in both the public and private sectors, that “"Nothing else will do" as the Government had “zero tolerance for corruption”.

 

With such public commitments by the Prime Minister and the soon-to-be next Prime Minister, the ball is in the court of the ACA to translate its Vision, Mission and Objective of a corruption-free Malaysia and a culture of zero tolerance for corruption into reality.

The ACA should accept this challenge and draw up a 10-year Anti-Corruption Action Plan to compare with Finland and be ranked among the world’s five least corrupt countries in the annual TI CPI by 2013, with progressive targets set for the intervening period, such as: 

  • To be ranked among the 25 least corrupt  nations by end of  Eighth Malaysia Plan in 2005;
  • To be ranked among the 15 least corrupt nations by Mid-Term Review of Ninth Malaysia Plan in 2008;
  • To be ranked among the 10 least corrupt nations by end of Ninth Malaysia Plan in 2010; and
  • To be ranked among the five least corrupt nations by 2013.

The ACA should formulate the 10-year Anti-Corruption Action  Plan to position Malaysia among the world’s  five least corrupt nations by 2013 which should be presented to Parliament next month for adoption as part of the 2004 Budget  when it is tabled on September 12, 2003, making it the centerpiece of a parliamentary budget debate for the first time in the history of the  Malaysian Parliament.

 

The DAP is prepared to fully co-operate with the ACA in the  formulation of the 10-year Anti-Corruption Action Plan to compare Malaysia with Finland and to be ranked among the world’s five least corrupt nations by 2013, and we propose to present various memoranda  to the ACA on our views, ideas and proposals in the next few weeks – possibly a weekly memorandum to the ACA.

 

We also propose to hold a series of public consultations to enable  civil society and public input on how the ACA can achieve its Vision, Mission and Objective of a corruption-free Malaysia and we will invite the  ACA to send official representatives to take part in these consultations.  We will also be asking for meetings with top ACA officials on these proposals and ideas.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Yours truly,

 

 

Lim Kit Siang

National Chairman

Democratic Action Party 

 

 

(4/8/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman