JULY 14 ― "We understood that if we offered bribes, we could survive. But if we didn’t, our company would likely die. We met until 4pm and finally decided: we will never offer bribes. We would rather close down the company than operate without integrity.” Those are the words of Mr Jack Ma, the self-made billionaire thanks to his e-commerce platform. He credits his success to maintaining integrity in his business practices and being transparent, even if it meant losing money.

I am quite sure many will agree with the above statement. I am also very sure many Malaysians will take it with a pinch of salt.

That reminds me of my former boss about 30 years ago. He had three words for us... Honesty, Integrity and Sincerity. As usual, not all will buy it but he steered the company to record profits.

Put that in today’s context and as a country vigorously pursuing developed nation status, where do we stand?

PricewaterhouseCoopers's (PwC) Global Economic Crime Survey 2016 found that 30 per cent (global average: 24 per cent) out of 80 Malaysian companies have experienced bribery and corruption (B&C) in their daily operations, compared to just 19 per cent in 2014. The survey stated that Malaysia now has the second highest reported level of corruption after China (46 per cent), followed by Japan (24 per cent) and Singapore (17 per cent). Approximately one-third of the respondents were from publicly listed companies.

We pride ourselves at being number 18 for ease of doing business but planting the seeds of B&C will make us a more risky place to do business.

B&C is one of the major criteria I used in evaluating proposed investments in a foreign country during my working life. Ease of doing business is not a major consideration because in the long-term B&C will eat up returns.

B&C can be addictive as cocaine and alcohol. 

Contrary to popular belief, it is seldom that the lowly-paid officials are the worst offenders. Corruption is widespread even among middle- or highly-paid officials. Thus, corruption is rather a matter of greed than need.

If the PwC report could tell us when, where and who is involved in the B&C, I think our MACC will be severely short-handed. And I am pretty sure it happens not only among companies but also with the authorities.    

In 2008, the Parliament and the Government unanimously approved the formation of an independent anti-corruption commission. The MACC Act 2009 came to effect on January 1 of that year which led to the official establishment of the MACC. It is supposed to be an independent, transparent and professional body to effectively and efficiently manage the nation’s anti-corruption efforts.

To convince the public of the MACC’s independency, transparency and professionalism, a "Check and Balance Mechanism” was created with the formation of a five panel independent body to closely and constantly monitor the functions of the MACC. They are to advise as well as to ensure that the functions and roles of the MACC are implemented efficiently, effectively, independently, with transparency and professionally.

Its vision and mission is to create a corrupt-free Malaysian society based on high spiritual and moral values and to eradicate corruption, abuse of power and malpractice in Malaysia, respectively. INTEGRITY is a core element in the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the MACC.

With such a grandiose set up, we need to know its performance.

In 2015, Malaysia is the 54th least corrupt nation out of 175 countries. In 2008, we were at number 47 (2011: 60th). So, what happened? Is there something not working with its five check and balance mechanism or is it truly independent? Its website does show its achievements.

Mainstream media will justify the ranking but online or alternative media will give a different perspective.

We will see things like what noted historian Baron John Acton coined, "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Even scientists claim the saying is biologically true.

Malaysia is perceived to have worsening democratic deficit. It may either be shady campaign finances, electoral manipulation, human rights abuses, weak and unreliable governance ― or downright venality.

We need vision, will and courage to contain B&C.

Now, do our political leaders, corporate generals and bureaucrats possess those attributes? There are some but the outstanding ones to me are people like the late Tun Dr Ismail, Tun Ismail Ali and Tun Tan Siew Sin, to name a few.

But the man of the hour has to be Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed who has helmed MACC since 2010. On July 31, 2010, he pledged to resign if any graft reports were not investigated by his agency, including high-profile cases involving government ministers.

He has kept his promise... where some have not kept theirs...

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.