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A co-ordinated effort, as part of the National Integrity Plan
(NIP), will be undertaken to prevent
Malaysia from
falling further in the corruption perception ranking. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department
Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz gave the assurance that various government departments,
the Malaysian Integrity Institute (IIM) and the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)
will be tasked towards creating a Malaysian society with a high level of
integrity. IIM was established in 2004 to coordinate and monitor the
implementation of the NIP. "The integrity agenda ... is a specific call
to ensure that the efforts to inculcate integrity among Malaysians will be
accomplished in a holistic manner," said Nazri in a written reply to
Parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Malaysia fell five
places to 44 last year in Transparency International's annual
Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which surveyed 163 countries.
Malaysiaranked
37 in 2003, when Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took office.
'Bias
elements'
In its report, the Berlin-based monitoring
body reported that there was a perceived lag between the formulation of new
policies in
Malaysiaand
actual implementation. Commenting on the ranking, Nazri said the index
focused on "perception" and that data for the ranking was obtained from foreign
businessmen. He added that TI's data is based on many sources.
"TI does
not carry out the research work themselves. TI itself has admitted that there
are bias elements within the work they carry," he said. However, Nazri
said the government is "aware that it is the perception of certain parties" on
the country. He said state level integrity institutes will be formed to
implement the NIP, with the objective of ensuring a "multi-racial, multi-ethnic"
practice with "good values" and "ethics." He said Tekad 2008, a
programme towards the "enhancement of ethics and integrity", will serve as a
model to fighting corruption. He said the overall objective of NIP will
be accomplished at eight levels, the family institution, community, civil
societies, socio-cultural, religious, economic, political and administrative
institutions.
"This means that all parties need to play their role and
cannot depend solely on the government to accomplish it," he said.
The
opposition, including Lim, has blamed the government's poor anti-corruption
drive for
Malaysia's slide
in ranking in recent years.
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