Will Najib take a leaf from Hu Jintao and give prominence to the grave problem of corruption in Malaysia in his Umno Presidential Address at the Umno General Assembly at the end of the month?


China’s President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary-General Hu Jintao warned at the 18th CCP Congress over the weekend that corruption could trigger the collapse of the Party and the fall of the State.

Would the Prime Minister and Umno President Datuk Seri Najib Razak take a leaf from Hu Jintao and give prominence to the grave problem of corruption in Malaysia in his Umno Presidential Address at the Umno General Assembly?

There is in fact more reason for Najib than Hu Jintao to give priority to the grave problem of corruption as in the last two decades, China have been making measurable progress in the battle against corruption while the reverse is the case for Malaysia.

In the first year of the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 1995, China was ranked in the lowly position of No.40 out of 43 countries with a CPI score of 2.16.

In contrast, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 with CPI score of 5.28 – sixth for Asian-Pacific nations after New Zealand (No. 1 – CPI score 9.5), Singapore (No. 3 – 9.2), Australia (No. 7 – 8.8), Hong Kong (No. 17- 7.12) and Japan (No. 20 – 6.72).

Seventeen years later, in the 2011 TI CPI, China was ranked No. 75 out of 183 countries with a CPI score of 3.6 – an improvement of 1.44 marks in 17 years – while Malaysia suffered the rare double ignominy of a worse ranking of No.60 with a worse score of 4.3.

In the past 17 years, Malaysia’s CPI score fell by more than one full point compared to Malaysia’s best CPI score of 5.32 in 1996.

If the trend of China’s improvement in the TI CPI and Malaysia’s regression continues unchecked, China will be placed in a better position in the TI CPI in less than five years.

Already in the past 17 years, Malaysia has lost her position as the sixth top Asian-Pacific nation in the TI CPI 1995 to another five countries,namely Taiwan, Bhutan, South Korea,Brunei and Macao while other countries like Thailand, Indonesia and even Philippines are closing the gap to overtake Malaysia.

To illustrate the gravity of Malaysia’s worsening corruption problem, Malaysia has also been overtaken by six Islamic countries when in 1997, Malaysia stood head and shoulders over all other Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries in terms of transparency and accountability.

Umno and Barisan Nasional have become synonymous with corruption in Malaysia and the 43 months of Najib premiership have shown that Najib is only good at mouthing anti-corruption slogans but totally lacking the political will and commitment to root out corruption, especially grand corruption involving political and government leaders.

Only a change of government, from BN to Pakatan Rakyat in Putrajaya, can create the conditions for a serious war against corruption to introduce a new political culture of zero tolerance against corruption.

This will be one of the priorities of a Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya, starting with a Royal Commission of Inquiry into corruption including a full-scale inquiry into the scandal of the RM40million currency trafficking and laundering involving Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Sabah timber trader Michael Chia.

[Speech by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Ubah dinner in Kudat on Sunday 11th November 2012 at 8pm]

  1. #1 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 11:25 am

    Ahmad Maslan sad: “…the important thing is the goverment is serious about tackling corruption…”

    Hello, this is an old joke. Now try another one…

  2. #2 by Bigjoe on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 11:46 am

    If Najib does it the coming UMNO GA, the delegates will ask ‘does he mean me”?? It will be political suicide. IT SIMPLY IS TOO LATE..HE blew it. Period…

  3. #3 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 1:12 pm

    Najib in the mold of Hu Jin tao?

    Hello, try another joke.
    How do you compare a giant with a pygmy?
    Or an ant with an elephant?
    Or a mosquito with a peacock?

    Hello, we still want to know who took the Scorpeene commission in truth. Maybe, the ex-Minister of Defence, current PM Najib would like to venture a guess?

    The elephant or peacock swallowed the commission, lah.

  4. #4 by yhsiew on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 1:29 pm

    ///but totally lacking the political will and commitment to root out corruption…///

    If people are used to corruption (treating it as a life-style), do you think they would bother to eradicate the menace?

  5. #5 by Bigjoe on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 3:02 pm

    In Selangor and Penang, the PR govt managed to accumulate literally billions in assets over 4 years. Given the fact the Federal govt is some 100X bigger than either state govt. its likely the assets that can be saved just over 1 term under PR even after the generous social programs promised by Anwar will add up to RM100b maybe even RM200billion…

  6. #6 by Noble House on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 3:08 pm

    Corruption not only poses a serious development challenge but erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance. The disintegration of civil society and the rule of law will results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of citizens.

  7. #7 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 3:48 pm

    MISTAKE

    Errr a little mistake there by LKS – on International politics. We accept the one china stand. That means taiwan, HK and macau are not to be considered countries. They are special administrative regions of china. The preferred expression I suppose should be “the following countries and regions: korea, taiwan etc etc …”.

  8. #8 by tuahpekkong on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 5:55 pm

    It is a pity that there is minimal political will to combat corruption even though we have all the institutions in place to fight it. The Auditor General has highlighted yearly the wrongdoings going on in Government Departments, yet to date, actions taken can only be considered as perfunctory, with zero convictions as far as I know. I think of all corruption cases in the country, probably less than 0.1 % were caught and charged in court. Of the cases brought up to the court, may be less than 10% were convicted. It simply means that if you are corrupted, there is a probability of only 1 in 10,000 that you are caught and convicted. It certainly pays to be corrupted!

  9. #9 by Godfather on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 7:13 pm

    Najib is going to take a leaf off Mamakthir. Najib is going to shout, scream and shed tears at the UMNO general assembly. He is going to say that corruption is a cancer that needs to be weeded out. He will say that those who are corrupt must not be allowed to hold office. And the entire UMNO assembly will rise as one to applaud the chief.

  10. #10 by boh-liao on Monday, 12 November 2012 - 11:48 pm

    UmnoB info chief unabashedly declared: “Bribery happens across d board” – corruption is in our DNA, here, there, everywhere
    So, LKS, tell us, DAP got corruption or no huh? What abt PAS n PKR?

  11. #11 by Jeffrey on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 - 1:59 am

    To evince political will to fight corruption, is govt prepared to put anti corruption agency (MACC) under the Opposition or least someone independent & neutral to the incumbent in power, instead of the PM? Is it prepared to take away the AG’s power to say yes or no for prosecution of corruption by MACC to happen? Right now opportunities at corruption are afforded by govt’s big involvement in business under the guise that it is needed to implement the NEP: is it prepared to cut down these opportunities by rolling back on the NEP? Is it prepared to support constitutional change to place the top premier position directly in the hands of the people who vote for it instead of a handful of party cadres and delegates who elect or support the candidate that give most quid pro quo govt contracts and licences to them or their cronies? Will there be legislative changes to define clearly what is allowed or not in cases of raising monies for political and election campaign? Is the govt prepared to act fair and just against extremists supporting maintenance of a corrupt system by braying for blood of whistle blowers and those who speak truth to power? Are the voters themselves prepared to cast their votes/support based on integrity of politicians than their ability to champion their interests on race and religious grounds? Unless the answers to these is in the affirmative, forget it (ie. the big talk of fighting corruption).

  12. #12 by waterfrontcoolie on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 - 6:03 am

    It is TOO LATE for him to take ANY ACTION! They will just stare at him and they don’t even need to utter a word! Just like the Cow-gate Minister sung the song ! ONLY ME????? We all agree that corruption comes in many forms but ours is the most open and blantan! It is institutionalized!

  13. #13 by boh-liao on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 - 8:42 am

    As other nations move on, dis nation is sinking in d quicksand, cesspool of blatant corruption under d fantastic n emotional names of race n religion
    There is also another YOKE dat drains d nation’s wealth n progress – can’t say too obviously lest mata2 visit LKS n confiscate all his PCs
    YES, ugly n dark things still happen here, d land dat d pee M proudly announced 2 b d BEST demoncrazy in d world

  14. #14 by boh-liao on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 - 10:59 am

    Barack Obama pledged “d best is yet 2 come” in his post-reelection speech
    Now our peeM shamelessly n blatantly plagiarised “Best is yet 2 come” – no originality, shame on 1M’sians

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