by Aidila Razak
Malaysiakini
Dec 10, 10

Close to half of Malaysians surveyed in a global corruption study felt that corruption is on the rise in the country.

According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2010, 46 percent surveyed believed that corruption has been higher this year than last year, while 19 percent felt it has dopped and 35 percent felt that there has been no difference.

However, out of the 1000 people surveyed by market research agency TNS Malaysia in face-to-face interviews from June 28 to July 26 this year, only 9 percent or 90 admitted to have given a bribe in the past 12 months.

The 90 said that they had bribed either a police officer, or people working in the registry and permit processing, land, medical, utilities, state education departments, judiciary and customs.

This puts Malaysia in the seventh spot among the 22 Asia Pacific countries canvassed, with South Korea leading the pack at only 2 percent of the people interviewed there admitting having done so in the past one year.

Police most affected by corruption

Most Malaysians interviewed felt that the police force is most affected by corruption, followed by political parties , legislative bodies and parliament.

They score 4.1, 4.0 and 3.4 respectively, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most affected by corruption.

Following that are the public and private sectors, both scoring 3.0 , same as the judiciary.

And NGOs are at 2.9, followed by media at 2.7, the education sector 2.4, armed forces 2.3 and religious bodies were believed to be least affected at 2.4.

Interestingly 48 percent of Malaysian respondents said that they felt that government effort to combat corruption is effective, compared to 20 percent who felt that it was not and 32 percent who saw no difference.

Worldwide, police were the institution found to be most affected by graft with 29 percent of those having dealings with the force saying that they have paid a bribe either to avoid problems or cut red tape.

One in four have given bribes

Alarmingly, however, according to the survey conducted on 91,000 people in 86 countries, an average of one in every four persons worldwide has indulged in this social sin at least once in the year.

Countries with the highest number of reported bribe payments in that period -more than once in every two respondents- were Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, India, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Palestine, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

The Global Corruption Barometer is the largest cross-country survey measuring both perception and experience of graft.

It was released yesterday in conjunction with the United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day