Kit Siang calls for National Integrity Plan

PETALING JAYA: There is a need for a National Integrity Plan to transform Malaysia into a leading nation of integrity within 10 years, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (pix) said today.
Calling for the plan to be debated and adopted by Parliament, the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri said we could see an improvement in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2018.
"The MACC Chief Commissioner and the members of the various anti-corruption monitoring bodies must assume personal responsibility to Parliament and the nation," Lim said.
"Under the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017, Malaysia plunged to the lowest TI CPI ranking in 23 years — No. 62 out of 180 countries.
"The history of the 23-year annual TI CPI from 1995-2017 shows that Malaysia had stagnated and even regressed in integrity and principles of accountability and good governance in the past two decades as compared with some countries, like China and Indonesia, which had made significant improvements with steady strides."
Lim pointed out that in the first year of TI CPI in 1995, which listed only 41 countries, Malaysia was ranked in the middling position of No. 23 with a score above the midpoint – i.e. 5.28 in a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean).
"China and Indonesia came in at the bottom end, with China ranked as No. 40 with a score of 2.16 out of 10 while Indonesia came in last ranking No. 41 out of 41 with a score of 1.94," he said.
"If Malaysia had made a decimal improvement in the TI CPI score of 0.1 points each year the past 22 years, Malaysia's present score would have been 7.58, or roughly translated into 75.8 out of a scale increased from 10 to 100, which would have placed Malaysia in the rank of No. 16 out of 180 countries."
Unfortunately, Malaysia's 2017 TI CPI ranking and the score had worsened, ranked No. 62 out of 180 countries with the TI CPI score plunging further down below the midpoint to 47/100 in the revised scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), he added.
He said Malaysia must get to the bottom of the 1MDB scandal and other major corruption scandals involving Mara, Felda and Tabung Haji.
We must introduce structural and institutional reforms as well mindset changes throughout our society so that we have a zero-tolerance for corruption, he added. — Bernama