KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — A columnist with Umno-owned broadsheet Mingguan Malaysia claimed today the criticisms levelled at the Najib administration by world anti-graft body Transparency International (TI) and rights group Amnesty International (AI) were politically motivated and insincere.

The columnist who went by the name Herman Hamid in a column titled, “Was TI and Amnesty sincere in its actions?” wrote that much of the two groups’ criticism towards Putrajaya’s poor handling of corruption were based on false perceptions and not facts.

The writer said the failure by the two NGOs to point out the alleged corruption of the countries of their origin clearly showed that their harsh criticism of the Najib government was part of a political plot to bring down the governments “of targeted countries”.

“What is baffling is the speakers at the IACC (International Anti-Corruption Conference) should have raised vocally about the country of origin of TI and AI. Furthermore the IACC is an international conference, not one to solely discuss this country,” the columnist wrote.

AI is headquartered in London, the UK while the global base of TI is in Berlin, Germany.

“So don’t need to be arrogant, in fact Malaysia is more sincere in helping Third World countries strengthen the integrity of their administration… but such things are never raised by TI.

“What they celebrate more is when the government of targeted countries fall. Thus it brings to question if their fight against corruption is not sincere and is actually a part of a political plot,” the writer added.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s government was the subject of strong criticism at the three-day IACC conference that started last Wednesday over its handling of debt-riddled state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

One of the speakers, TI chief José Ugaz, said Malaysia will not progress in its fight against corruption if questions surrounding the RM2.6 billion that was deposited into Najib’s accounts remain unresolved.

But Herman said Ugaz’s criticism was unwarranted as the investigation on 1MDB is still ongoing.

“His action… in piling pressure on the host country appears awkward as from one angle, it was as if he was trying to teach us when the investigation on 1MDB is still ongoing,” the columnist wrote.

The columnist also accused AI secretary-general Sahil Shetty of making baseless allegations in saying Putrajaya feared the Bersih 4 rally of turning into a people’s uprising similar to the Arab Spring.

Herman insisted that Bersih 4 had no majority support and noted that the participation last weekend was dominated by the ethnic Chinese.

“Even the supporters who took part in Bersih 1, 2 and 3 have distanced themselves from the latest one so hence it became an event that was dominated by one race and one party. Actually this country is made up of multiple races and the Malay-Muslims form the core of its politics”.

The columnist pointed out further that it was wrong for Shetty to suggest that the Najib administration had intended to crack down on Bersih 2.0, the organisers of the Bersih 4 rally, noting that the right to assemble was enshrined in Malaysia’s Federal Constitution.

The IACC’s strong criticism of the Najib administration drew immediate flak from government leaders who insisted that their leadership has demonstrated real efforts to combat graft.

Top officials from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) also claimed that Malaysia’s crusade against corruption is recognised globally and was made a “model nation”.

But some influential leaders from the ruling party including Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz have stressed on the need to heed the criticism made by the IACC, and said some of the issues raised at the conference were humiliating for Malaysia, the host country.

*An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the Utusan columnist as Herman Ham ID and misreported the headquarters of TI and AI as in the US. The mistakes were unintentional and have since been corrected. Malay Mail Online apologises for the errors.