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Malaysia’s corruption perception rating stagnates in 2022 with many accused politicians still in power
- Transparency International’s index gave Malaysia a rating of 47, on a scale of one to 100, where one equals the most corrupt
- The NGO said Malaysia got the rating due to politicians’ empty promises to combat corruption as influence, alliance-building trump accountability
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From warships costing billions of ringgit that have yet to materialise and feared kickbacks in massive contracts for flood and 5G projects, a stinging corruption index rating suggests that Malaysia’s politicians have failed to get a handle on dishonest and fraudulent conduct – with many of the accused on rotation through different governments.
Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perception Index, released at the end of January by the Berlin-based NGO, gave Malaysia a rating of 47, on a scale of one to 100, where one equals the most corrupt.
Like many Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, Malaysia has stagnated on the index. According to Transparency International, that stems from politicians’ empty promises to combat corruption as influence and alliance-building trump accountability.
But inaction carries major consequences, the group says.
“Although countries [in the region] have been effective in cases of petty corruption, grand corruption is still rampant,” said Ilham Mohamed, Asia adviser for Transparency International.
“For an average person, you might not come across requests for bribes and such on a day-to-day basis, but funding that goes in education, housing, health systems and infrastructure projects will be swindled in a manner that is extremely hard to trace.”
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