Cabinet utterly impotent when it dared not discipline Azam Baki as MACC Chief Commissioner as Azam together with his counterparts in Botswana, Cyprus and Argentina, forms a quartet of the worst anti-corruption agency heads in the world for Malaysia’s dropping five points in score and 11 points in rank in the last two years in the TI CPI 2020 and 2021

The Cabinet was utterly impotent yesterday when it dared not discipline Azam Baki as MACC Chief Commissioner as Azam together with his counterparts in Botswana, Cyprus and Argentina, forms the quartet for the worst anti-corruption agency heads in the world for Malaysia’s dropping five points in score and 11 points in rank in the last two years in the TI CPI 2020 and 2021.

If this is not infamy, I do not know what “infamy” means.

In countries where there is integrity and accountability, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner would have handed in his resignation at the atrocious TI CPI 2020/2021 reports but not in Malaysia,

For nearly one month, Malaysia was convulsed in government and parliamentary paralysis by what is best term Azam-gate where the country’s chief anti-corruption officer failed to be a prime example of integrity, probity and accountability with his shareholding scandal.

The hope that Malaysia might become one of the world’s top 30 countries in public integrity by 2030 under the Pakatan Harapan government was destroyed by the Sheraton Move conspiracy on Feb. 26, 2020 and we have now the sorry TI CPI 2020/2021 reports.

The country was promised that under the former UMNO-BN regime in the last decade that Malaysia would achieve the target to be in the top 30 countries in the world in public integrity and anti-corruption.

Studying the TI CPI ranking and score for the 24-year series of TI CPI from 1995-2018, there was no ground for anyone to believe that the target of Malaysia being ranked in the top 30 countries of TI CPI 2020 could be achieved.

Countries which had been down on the list of the TI CPI ranking in the first series in 1995, like China, Thailand, India and Indonesia, were fast catching up to Malaysia’s level, which had regressed since 1995.

Fortunately, this trajectory was stopped when the Pakatan Harapan government took over, and in the TI CPI 2019, Malaysia achieved the best TI CPI performance in 25 years with a single-year improvement of six points for TI CPI score and 10 placings for TI CPI ranking – a ranking of No. 51 and score of 53 out of the 100.

Now we are back on the slippery slope of corruption as before the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and the worst is yet to come from Azam-gate and worsening of the system of integrity in public life.

Malaysians are entitled to ask whether Malaysia will overtake China in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) just as Malaysia had overtaken China in cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, a feat that was supposed to be impossible considering that China has a population which is 40 times larger than Malaysia!

From the TI CPI records of the Najib administration from 2010-2018, it is likely that China would have overtaken Malaysia in the TI CPI series before 2030.

This was stopped by the 14th General Election in 20118 as the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government made it quite an impossible task for China to overtake Malaysia in TI CPI reports.

But with the Sheraton Move conspiracy and the two backdoor Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri governments, China may overtake Malaysia in both TI CPI score and ranking by 2025!

China was ranked No. 40 with a CPI score of 2.16 out of 10 in 1995. In 2018, China was ranked No. 87 with a CPI score of 39 out of 100.

In 2021, China is ranked No. 66 with a CPI score of 45. – three points behind Malaysia’s 48.

In the last two years, China gained 4 points in the CPI score to reach 45 out of 100 while Malaysia lost five points to reach a CPI score of 48 out of 100.

Will Malaysia lose out to China in the TI CPI before 2015, or even sooner?

Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Muhammad Mohan warned that Indonesia is “improving slowly” over the past few years and Malaysia should be careful as “one day Indonesia may overtake us”.

In the TI CPI 2021, Indonesia is ranked No. 96 with a score of 38 as compared to Malaysia’s rank of 62 and score of 48.

The sad scenario of Indonesia overtaking Malaysia may come about before 2030 if Malaysia continues to regress in anti-corruption while Indonesia continues to make progress on this front.

In the TI CPI 2021, Indonesia improves its score by one point while Malaysia drops by three points.

If Malaysia does not buck up in the anti-corruption front, it is not inconceivable that Indonesia may even overtake Malaysia in the TI CPI before 2025!

That will the saddest day for Malaysia.

The corruption question should be in the forefront of the issues in the Johore state general election – is Malaysia to become one of the world’s top 30 countries in integrity and accountability or is Malaysia to relapse to be a kleptocracy and the laughing-stock of the world.

A leading Hong Kong daily had posed the question: “In Johor election, is Malaysia’s Umno seeking stability or a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card for Najib?”

This is a question to be answered by voters of Johore.