Whether 2022 will be a year of rejecting corruption will depend on three things led by the issue of Azam Baki as MACC Chief Commissioner

A former Prime Minister in his 2022 New Year message hoped that 2022 will be better than 2020 and 2021, and that it would be a year of rejecting corruption to save Malaysia.

He said Malaysians must reject corruption and choose incorruptible leaders if the country is to have any hope to achieving its potential.

He said the political situation now is bad, as bad politicians continued to rule and good ones are not given a chance.

He said that while welcoming 2022, Malaysians must reflect on their role to achieve the goals as set in Vision 2020.

He said: “We still have the capacity to do so in this blessed country.

“Only by rejecting corruption and electing clean leaders can we save this country.”

Whether 2022 will be a year of rejecting corruption will depend on three things led by the issue of Azam Baki as MACC Chief Commissioner.

Firstly, will the Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri, continue to avoid this issue by his two-month old “conspiracy of silence” and whether the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department will refuse to take the bull of anti-corruption by the horns and decline to summon Azam Baki to explain the serious allegations made against him two months ago.

Secondly, it will depend on the Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021 later this month, as in the TI CPI 2020, there was a two-point drop in the score and six-point drop in ranking and heading towards the lowest TI CPI score and rank for Malaysia in TI CPI 2021, which is expected to be announced at the end of January 2022.

Thirdly, it will depend on whether the Prime Minister and his Cabinet agree that the most critical issue facing Malaysians today is to stop the national decline in the past half-a-century resulting in Malaysia being overtakan by other countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam, and by being overtaken by other nations like Indonesia in the coming decades.

Can we reset and unite as a nation as Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region to stop Malaysia’s decline and to leap-frog to achieve a world-class great nation status by before Malaysia’s Centennial in 2063 – the pursuit of the Malaysian Dream to become a world-class great nation?