KUALA LUMPUR: Stop pointing fingers at the government on corruption as corrupt practices are also rampant in the private sector, said former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz (pix).
“Don’t point fingers only to the government, look into the public sector transactions.
“Who built this hotel? It’s not the government ... many of infrastructure projects, many of the actual transactions happening in the society (were) done by the private sector,“ she said during a special session at the Institutional Investors Council Malaysia (IIC) — Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) Governance Convention 2019 here, today.
Rafidah said the private sector corruption is not well understood and looked at, hence, this has given an impact on Malaysia’s corruption ratings.
Malaysia was ranked better at 61th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2018 compared to 62nd the previous year.
However, Malaysia recorded a similar score of 47 points in the corruption index just like 2017.
Rafidah said Malaysia should adopt zero tolerance against corruption to address the issue.
Citing her experience, Rafidah said there were some parties in Malaysia who tolerated a certain level of corruption.
“How can you talk about certain level of corruption. What is your level ... RM3 billion for Scorpene submarines whatever or RM3 for the police on the road.
“Please, we should talk about zero tolerance,“ she added. — Bernama
