Graft situation in Malaysia worrying — Integriti CEO
MIRI: Malaysians need to play a role in fighting corruption in the country, which records a worrying percentage of Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
Quoting studies by Global Peace Index 2016, Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff – president and chief executive officer of Malaysian Institute of Integrity ( Integriti) – said Malaysia’s CPI stood at 49 per cent; or ranked 62nd out of 188 countries.
He said the situation was worrying and if allowed to deteriorate, it could ruin the country like what was happening in Somalia, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
“CPI in Somalia is 10, Zimbabwe 22 and Myanmar 28, while Malaysia has 49 with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$ 22,762. Myanmar’s GNI is US$ 4,608, Zimbabwe’s US$ 1,615 while Somalia’s ( GNI) is not accounted for,” he said during the presentation of his paper on ‘Roles of Government Officials in the Empowerment of Integrity’.
Anis was among the four speakers at the half- day seminar and forum ‘ Making Integrity A Community Culture’ conducted by Pustaka Miri yesterday.
The three other speakers were Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) Miri branch head Othman Anyan, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ( MCMC) Sarawak Branch’s Control and Compliance Unit head Ahmad Bakhtiar Hamdan, and local syariah and civil laywer Raihan Usop.
Anis said Malaysia should not be proud of having GNI of RM22,762, reasoning that countries like New Zealand and Denmark had GNIs of RM44,028 and RM32,889, respectively.
In terms of CPI ranking, New Zealand is ranked fourth and Demark, eighth, against Malaysia’s 62nd out of 188
CPI in Somalia is 10, Zimbabwe 22 and Myanmar 28, while Malaysia has 49 with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$22,762. Myanmar’s GNI is US$4,608, Zimbabwe’s US$1,615 while Somalia’s (GNI) is not accounted for.
countries.
“New Zealand and Denmark, besides having few corruption cases, have very high integrity, good governance and development rates. Even their sheep look better,” he quipped during his presentation, which attracted about 200 participants, the majority of whom were government officials.
Anis said even more worrying, as reported on the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) 2017 Asia Pacific report, was that more than 60 per cent of youths in Malaysia believed that corruption was a normal thing.
“They are the future leaders of the country. Do we want corruption to be widespread in Malaysia, which will eventually ruin the country? I am ashamed of telling visitors that Malaysia has integrity, anti- corruption agency and also the Unity Department after so many years of independence. Integriti’s vision is that one day, the institute would be closed due to massive drop in corruption cases,” he said.
Anis said to achieve such vision, various strategies are being carried out to create greater awareness of the importance of rejecting corruption – among them are community integritybuilding, putting logo with slogan ‘Amalkan Integrity’ (Make Integrity a Way of Life), preschool integrity model and profiling states in Malaysia to ascertain those needing more integrity awareness programme.
On a lighter note, he said he was very happy with the peaceful and accelerated pace of development here and hoped for more ‘ Miris’ in Malaysia.
The forum was moderated by RTM Miri deejay Jude Juda.
All the speakers including Jude, as well as Pustaka Miri librarian Ahmad Samsuddin signed the integrity pledge at the speciallydesigned board.
Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff, Integriti president and chief executive officer