The latest Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report on the astronomical RM196.8 billion in dirty money siphoned out of Malaysia in 2010, resulting in a mind-boggling total of RM871 billion in illegal capital flight from the country over the last 10 years (2001-2010), is the third warning of adverse international reports in the last month of the year that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” as far as Malaysia is concerned.

The GFI report marks a trio of adverse international reports about Malaysia in the last month of this year to warn Malaysians why the time has come for a change of Federal government in Putrajaya in the forthcoming 13th General Elections.

There are still 11 days before the end of the month of December for the year 2012. Will there be another adverse international report about Malaysia to make it a quartet of adverse international reports in the last month of this year?

The other two adverse international reports for Malaysia which were published this month are:

• Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2012 – Despite a change of methodology for the TI CPI score and ranking, the ineluctable fact is that corruption under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from 2009-2012 is even worse than corruption under the previous five Prime Ministers, including Tun Abdullah and Tun Mahathir;

• Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 which showed that Malaysia is losing out in the battle for the future, as the results highlight that Malaysia is suffering a twin educational crisis, with the Malaysian education system providing an increasingly inferior education over the years as well as Malaysian students losing out to their peers in other countries in the key critical subjects of mathematics and science which will determine whether Malaysia could succeed to transform itself into a competitive, innovative and high-income developed nation in the international arena.

The year 2012 is ending very poorly both for the country and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

There are not only this trio of adverse international reports for Malaysia in the last month of December 2012, but the country is increasingly haunted by the ghosts of past decades of corrupt, undemocratic and unjust governance.

Recently, former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir made the unforgettable quote that it is better for the people to elect the devil they know rather than the angel whom they may not know.

What Mahathir had not reckoned with is that the ghosts of the past are increasingly taking centre-stage in Malaysian politics – not only the ghosts of the murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu; Teoh Beng Hock, the victim of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) and the countless who were “murdered” while under police custody in police lockups like A. Kugan crying out for justice, but other “ghosts” of the past as well.

The recent explosive “confessions” by the carpet trader, Deepak Jaikishan on the Atantunya murder case; the public exchanges between the former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the former Criminal Crime Investigation Department Director Datuk Ramli Yusof about the wrongs and abuses of power committed by the other; the public allegations of corruption and abuses of power made against the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail, are only some of the “skeletons” rattling in the national cupboard but nobody expects the UMNO/BN administrations to get to the bottom to uncover their truths.

Only a change of Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 13GE in the next 100 days can resolve and appease all the “ghosts” of the UMNO/BN administrations, particularly of the past three decades – including who was responsible for the murder of auditor Jalil Ibrahim in Hong Kong in the first mega-scandal of the Mahathir era, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal in the eighties.