KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — The nation faces an integrity crisis with corruption a major contributor at all levels of administration, said Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M).
Its president, Datuk Akhbar Satar, said: “The most apparent problem is that we have politicians from both sides of the divide who rather shoot each other down instead of solving problems.
“The rakyat is instead caught in the crossfire.
“We must have leaders who want to serve for the betterment of society and not worry about being re-elected. Only then will we see a strong political entity working towards a better nation.”
According to TI-M’s Malaysian Corruption Barometer 2014, 45 per cent of the 2,032 respondents ranked politicians as the most corrupt. This was followed by the police (42 per cent), civil servants (31 per cent) and judiciary (24 per cent).
Several high-ranking government officials and those serving government-linked companies have been picked up in recent months by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for their alleged links to graft-related activities.
Akhbar said civil servants lacked motivation and this was one of the main reasons why they did not report cases of fraud, breach of trust and other corruption activities committed by their peers.
“There are many law-abiding civil servants. They are honest and hard working but afraid to say anything," he said.
“They keep telling themselves that it’s the environment, where corrupt practices are seen from top to bottom. Some feel if their bosses and peers do it (commit corrupt practices), it’s right for them to do so as well.”
Akhbar said Malaysians, generally, must make major adjustments at all levels to improve the perception and situation.
“For things to change drastically, we need to review our systems ... education, finance. Education moulds our future leaders," he said.
“We also need sincere and clean individuals to lead the nation in all the sections."
