KUALA LUMPUR: A survey by Transparency International found that 67% of Malaysians were of the view that the government’s efforts to tackle corruption were worthy of praise.
Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Dr Muhammad Mohan said this was among the findings of the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Asia 2020 survey carried out in the country between July 2019 and June 2020, which saw Malaysia administered by two different governments.
Muhammad said it was clear that this was a result of aggressive moves by several government agencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and policies implemented by the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC), including the National Anti Corruption Plan.
“The public is still hopeful and have not lost trust towards the legal enforcement and public service, and believe that corruption can be eliminated.
“However, there is a drop in trust on politicians and their officers lately, most probably caused by political instabilities, party hopping, money politics allegations and corruption scandals involving political figures,” he said in a statement today.
However, the same poll also found that 71% of Malaysians think that government corruption is a serious problem.
Describing the findings on corruption as serious, he said of all public institutions, many respondents opined that members of parliament (36%), the police (30%) and government officials (28%) topped the corruption perception ranking.
Transparency International today launched the GCB Asia 2020, a comprehensive public opinion survey of citizen views on corruption and bribery in Asia, with nearly 20,000 citizens surveyed in 17 countries. — Bernama
