FEDERAL Law Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar must not take the people as fools and expect them to buy the excuse that the country’s corruption perceptions index (CPI) is getting better due to a crackdown on corruption cases by enforcement agencies (such as the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission [MACC]), when in reality, corruption is still rampant in the country.
Earlier this week, 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 that is supposedly in-charge instead continues to plant his head in the sand and find excuses rather than fixing the rampant problem of corruption in our country.
When Pakatan Harapan was in power, the Government went on a crackdown on corruption at the highest levels. This caught international headlines and even got even more widespread publicity.
If we base it on the logic of the minister, our CPI should have dropped drastically, but instead we have seen results where it did not worsen our CPI, but actually improved drastically.
PH also put forth many reforms and anti-corruption practices including initial reforms to government-linked companies (GLCs) and reduce significantly political appointments at highest level of positions.
All these were reversed when the Sheraton Move happened and we are now back in the dark days as corruption continues to ravage our country.
So our ministers, especially the Prime Minister, must take their heads out the sand and realise the issue at hand and stop making excuses before we continue 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 us against corruption.
They must also stop all kinds of intimidation and investigations against opposition elected representatives and activist that demanded Azam Baki to resign.
This will damage the perception 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 giving out positions as political rewards including political appointments to country’s top GLCs 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. – Jan 28, 2021
Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen is the MP for Bandar Kuching.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
