Malaysia has lost out to five countries since the first annual TI CPI 1995 but will Malaysia lose out to another eight countries, including Indonesia, China and India by the end of this decade?

Malaysia has lost out to five countries since the first annual TI CPI 1995 but will Malaysia lose out to another eight countries, including Indonesia, China and India by the end of this decade?

I dread the worldwide release of Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2022 on Tuesday.

Malaysia has lost out to five countries since the first annual TI CPI 1995 but will Malaysia will lose out to another eight countries, including Indonesia, China and India by the end of this decades?

If the TI CPI 2022 for Malaysia is worse than the TI 2021, then it highlights the uphill battle for the Anwar unity government in the fight against corruption.

In the first TI CPI 1995 list for 41 countries, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 with a score of 5.28 out of a score of 10 points. We have since lost out to five countries in the TI CPI – Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Italy and Greece.

We are now ranked No. 62 out of 180 countries with a score of 48 out of 100 marks – the lowest rank for Malaysia and near the lowest score.

What is in store for Malaysia in the TI CPI 2022 – will Malaysia crash through the lowest rank of 62 and even a lower score of 47 out of 100 marks which Malaysia achieved in 2017 and 2018 under the last years of the Najib kleptocratic government?

The Pakatan Harapan government achieved a notable turnaround and achieved the best in 25 years and it was ranked 51 out of 180 countries with a score of 53 out of 100 marks.

It embarked Malaysia on the road to become one of the world’s top 30 countries in public integrity before 2030 but this turnaround was not sustained by the two “backdoor” governments of Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri spawned by the Sheraton Move political conspiracy in February 2020, and we are down to the rank of 62 out of 180 countries with a score of 48 out of 100 marks in the TI CPI 2021.

From the 27-year series of the TI CPI, Malaysia will lose to another eight countries by the end of this decade if there is not buck-up in the anti-corruption fight, ie. China, Hungary, India, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.

In the second annual TI CPI 1996, which ranked 54 countries, Malaysia was the top country in the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), but in the TI CPI 2021, Malaysia had lost out to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

By the end of this decades, the TI CPI trajectory will indicate Malaysia will lose out to another 11 OIC countries, viz Tunisia, Kuwait, Senegal, Senegal, Bahrain, Maldives, Guyana, Morocco, Suriname, Indonesia and Turkey if there is no drastic turnaround on the anti-corruption front.

We do not want Malaysia, in the words of the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to become “a country of thieves led by thieves” and that is why it is important that the Parliamentary session beginning in a fortnight’s time lay down a new charter for Malaysia to become one of the top countries in the world in public integrity and the fight against corruption.

I support the call by G25 for the release the Report of the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) which was set up in 2018 during the Pakatan Harapan government under former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to hear the views of various civil society groups on strengthening the system of governance and the rule of law.

It is too late for the Anwar unity government to do anything to improve Malaysia’s TI 2022 CPI Report, but the Anwar government should do its utmost to ensure that the Malaysia’s TI 2023 CPI Report is the best for Malaysia, even better than the TI 2019 CPI Report, the best in 25 years since Transparency International started its annual CPI series in 1995.

The February/March Parliament must discuss and adopt a new public integrity plan to make Malaysia one of the top 30 countries in the world in the annual TI CPIs.