I agree with Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that there is no need to debate the “roots of corruption” remarks of PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang as it is as clear as day that the remarks are un-Malaysian, irrational, extremist and without any theoretical, theological or factual basis.
Islam is one of the great religions of the world and teaches human beings to be good, but Hadi has no problem in condoning corruption and working with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, one of the masterminds of the monstrous 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal.
Islam also does not differentiate among races but Hadi keeps spouting irrational, extremist and racist views.
There are some 1.8 bil Muslims in the world as of 2015 – roughly 24% of the global population – and the majority of Muslims globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region like Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.
Only about 20% of the world’s Muslims live in the Middle East-North Africa region where Islam originated in the seventh century.
Corruption is not a racial or nationality problem but Hadi continues to identify corruption with race or nationality.
There is not a single Muslim-majority country among the top 10 countries regarded as least corrupt, while three Muslim-majority countries are among 10 countries regarded as the most corrupt in the world.
When Transparency International (TI) started its annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 1995, Malaysia was way ahead of India, China and Indonesia which were respectively ranked in 35th place with 2.78 points, 40th place with 2.16 points and 41st place with 1.94 points out of 41 countries surveyed.
Malaysia, on the other hand, ranked in 23rd place that year and scored 5.28 out of 10 points.
After 27 years, Malaysia is ranked in 62nd place out of 180 nations in the TI CPI 2021 with a score of 48 out of 100 points.
Meanwhile, India is in 85th place with a score of 40 points, China is ranked in 66th place with a score of 45 points while Indonesia is in 96th place with a score of 38 points.
All three countries have made great strides in fighting corruption, particularly Indonesia which has improved its score from 1.94 points out of 10 to 38 points out of 100.
On the contrary, Malaysia is among the few countries which had regressed to the extent that a former prime minister had just been jailed for a mega financial scandal that would have been covered up if there had not been a change of Government in the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018.
Instead of spearheading the battle against worsening corruption in Malaysia, Hadi has come out with a perverted version to give a racial twist to the problem of corruption in Malaysia – something the voters of Malaysia must not forget when they go to the polls during the 15th General Election (GE15), whether this year or next year.
Hadi has only confirmed that the GE15 will, among other things, be a contest between the rule of law versus corruption. – Sept 4, 2022
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
