IF I AM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, I would ask Opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin to move a motion in the three-week parliamentary meeting starting on May 22 to commend Malaysia for the 40-ranking jump in the Reporters sans Frontières or RSF’s World Press Freedom Ranking 2023.
Like how Malaysia has jumped from the 113th ranking in 2022 to 73rd ranking in 2023, Hamzah can challenge Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government to perform a similar 40-ranking jump in the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) to jump from the 61st ranking in the TI CPI 2022 to 21st ranking in the TI CPI 2023.
Likewise, Hamzah can express support for the aspiration of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and various Sultans for political stability and national unity in the country and to endorse the vision for Malaysia to achieve developed nation status and the nine strategic objectives of Vision 2020 by the end of the five-year term of the Anwar unity government in 2027.
Both Muhyiddin who is the Bersatu president and his PAS counterpart Hadi should know that Perikatan Nasional (PN) does not have the numbers in Parliament to win a no confidence vote over Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister in Malaysia.
Henceforth, that continued talk of toppling of the Anwar government in such circumstances would be deleterious to the chances of Malaysia recovering to be a first-rate world-class nation or as the Sultan of Johore said, counter-productive to efforts to prioritise economic recovery and “not healthy for the entire nation, whether socially, economically or even our standing internationally”.
Will Muhyiddin and Hadi prove to be Malaysian patriots first and party politicians second?
Since the inaugural TI CPI 1995, we have lost out not only to the Top 10 countries led by Denmark and which includes Singapore, we have also lost out to five countries in the first annual TI CPI 1995 list (Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Italy, and Greece).
Furthermore, we have also lost out to countries like Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Mauritius, and Vanuatu, and drew with Jordan.
Unless we buck up, we will be overtaken by Armenia, China, Cuba, Bahrain, Jamaica, Oman, Benin, Bulgaria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Hungary, Kuwait, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, Kosovo, Guyana, India, Maldives, Suriname, and Tunisia by end of this decade.
Even Indonesia has progressively improved from 1995 to 34 out of 100 marks in the TI CPI 2022 while Malaysia has progressively regressed from 1995 to 47 points out of 100 marks in TI CPI 2022.
Is it a matter of time before Indonesia overtake Malaysia, showing to the world that Indonesia is cleaner and less corrupt than Indonesia?
In the TI CPI 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries with India ranked No. 35, China (No. 40) and Indonesia (last at No 41).
In the TI CPI 2022, Malaysia was ranked No.61 out of 180 countries with China ranked 65, India (No. 86) and Indonesia (No. 110 with a score of 34 marks out of 100).
Would Malaysia eventually lose out to China, India and Indonesia in the TI CPI series before Malaysia’s Centennial in 2057?
In the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, we have lost out to United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Saudi Arabia and we stand to lose out to more OIC countries if we continue on the trajectory of decline in the TI CPI series.
Can the 2023 TI CPI be the start of Malaysia’s decline in the TI CPI series and the start of Malaysia’s climb to be one of the top countries in the world in public integrity with minimal corruption – by imbuing Malaysians to uphold a moral and ethical society that respect religious and spiritual values of the various great religions as intended by Vision 2020? – May 8, 2023
Veteran lawmaker and retired DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang is the incumbent MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
