PETALING JAYA: According to the newly released “Global Corruption Barometer for Asia 2020”, Malaysians viewed Parliament, the police and government as institutions most likely to be corrupt.
Released by Transparency International (TI), 20,000 people across 17 Asian countries were surveyed, with Malaysia’s portion of the study conducted between July 2019 and June 2020.
Of those surveyed, 36% believed that “most or all of the people” in Parliament were corrupt, with the police and government officials the next most selected answers with 30% and 28% respectively.
In total, 71% of Malaysian respondents said they felt that government corruption was a “big problem”.
However, 67% said they believed the government was doing a good job fighting corruption, and Malaysia fared well in other respects when compared with the rest of Asia.
Up to 7% of Malaysians reported they had been bribed for their vote in an election, lower than the Asian average of 14%, and 15% said they had leveraged connections when accessing public services compared with the Asian average of 22%.
In a statement accompanying the results, TI-Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan said Malaysians were still very hopeful.
“It is clear that the rakyat believe we can all fight corruption and have not lost faith in law enforcement or public services despite their experiences.
“If the government wishes to improve its image amongst the rakyat it serves, the government needs to get its act together. The National Anti-Corruption Plan has to be implemented and enforced without delays, amendments, watering down or U-turns,’ he said.
He also called for the Political Finance Act to be tabled in Parliament to limit and control money politics, party hopping and election-related bribery.
“Strong political will is needed if we aspire to make Malaysia known for its integrity and not corruption.” – FMT