‘Lavish lifestyles, overspending can lure youths into corruption’

SIBU: Living a glamorous lifestyle that pushes some people to spend beyond their income level is likely the key factor that lured many youths into corruption, says Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

He said this when commenting on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) statistics that nearly 96 per cent, or 1,045, of the 1,092 individuals arrested for corruption nationwide between 2013 and October were those aged 40 and below.

The same statistics also showed youths made up 54 per cent of the 5,799 individuals arrested between 2003 and 2013 for corruption.

“Youth of today should not resort to the easy way of making money. At the same time, one must live within one’s mean.

“If you want to have better financial strength, you must work and strive harder. The returns from this hard work will be able to give you better lives,” Abdul Karim told thesundaypost, pointing out that resorting to corruption and other unethical ways of making money were not the answers.

“Once you resort to corruption, there is a tendency that you would repeat it until the day you get caught,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri in closing the state-level International Anti-Corruption Day 2016 in Kuching on Friday, said it was crucial for the youths to be exposed and taught on ways to eliminate corruption and abuse of power.

She said combating corruption would require the participation of every level of society to create an anti-corruption culture among Malaysians.

She further pointed out that MACC and the Education Ministry had included anticorruption elements in Primary 6 textbooks, while tertiary institutions had mooted anticorruption secretariats.

Other initiatives to combat corruption, she added, were the Whistle Blowers Act 2010, 14 Sessions Courts specifically set up for corruption cases, and the Corruption Offenders Database that currently contains 800 names.