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Saturday 15 December 2012

Dubious Honour Roll

Despite Malaysia's high-profile anticorruption crusade, half of the corporate executives surveyed by a global corruption watchdog believe that competitors have obtained business through bribery, underscoring the hard task ahead for Prime Minister Najib Razak's government in weeding out graft.

Transparency International said Malaysia scored worst in the 2012 Bribe Payers Survey. It asked about 3,000 executives from 30 countries whether they had lost a contract in the past year because competitors paid a bribe—and in Malaysia, 50% said yes. Second on the dubious honor roll was Mexico, at 48%.

Japan ranked as the world's least-corrupt place to do business, with just 2% of respondents saying they had lost out due to bribery; Malaysia's neighbor Singapore was second-cleanest, at 9%. Even Indonesia, with a long-standing reputation for corruption, fared better than more-developed Malaysia: Southeast Asia's largest economy came in at 47%. By comparison, 27% of respondents in China said they thought bribes had cost them business.

"It shows the attitude of private companies in Malaysia, indicating that bribery in the public sector could be systemic and in a sense institutionalized," said Paul Low, president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International.

Since taking office in 2009, Mr. Najib has pledged to eradicate corruption and regain public confidence. Hundreds of cases have been investigated. The government has established special courts to hear corruption cases and is working to introduce harsher punishment, said Ravindran Devagunam, director of corruption prevention at government think-tank Pemandu. The body reports to the prime minister's department.

Read the rest: http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/12/11/malaysia-tops-bribery-table/

With Lynas and other issues that clearly violate the nation's best interests, is it any wonder?

4 comments:

Starmandala said...

What an unfunny joke! The report says Najib's administration has a hard task weeding out corruption... it's like saying the drug lords will find it hard going to eradicate drug abuse on this planet! Talk about stupidity, journalistic cupidity, or sheer doublespeak...

Crankster said...

Hahaha. Good point.

Or saying the Mafia has a hard time clamping down on gangsterism.

Ellese said...

Why do you like to lie? For past three years I've encountered with academics laymen etc who support lynas and none can even articulate why it's dangerous. I ask to read independent IAEA report and almost all afraid to confront the truth and adopted the lazy malas membaca attitude. Don't spread falsehood. Lynas is not dangerous as been portrayed. Our blind following affects our moral stand. So be clear. Avoid the spreading falsehood.

Ellese said...

Erratum. I've met those anti lynas supporter who cannot justify their stand.