KUALA LUMPUR – Transparency International (TI) Malaysia attributed the stagnation of the nation’s corruption ranking to slow reforms and a series of high-profile discharges not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) cases affecting public perception.
Malaysia has failed to improve its standing in the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), remaining at 57th place with a score of 50 for the second consecutive year.
Its president Muhammad Mohan, at presentation on Malaysia’s position in the index here today, said the country’s score also remained the same as last year at 50 points.
Among Asean countries, Malaysia ranked second-best after Singapore which had scored 84 points, followed by Vietnam (40 points), Indonesia (37), Thailand (34), Philippines (33), Laos (33), Cambodia (21) and Myanmar (16 points), Bernama reported
The CPI is based on 13 surveys and expert assessments measuring the perceived level of corruption in public sectors in 180 countries and territories worldwide.
This year, Denmark, Finland and Singapore, the top three countries, are deemed as “clean countries”, while Venezuela, Somalia and South Sudan are at the bottom of the index.
Muhammad noted that while the government had introduced various reforms, delays in key legislative changes, particularly in whistleblower protection and information transparency, had hindered Malaysia’s progress in tackling corruption.
“Reforms are taking too long to materialise, and the public is growing impatient. The combination of slow legislative action and controversial DNAA cases has likely contributed to our stagnant ranking,” he said, as quoted by a local daily.
“I am not challenging the law, but this is the perception and how the public sees it. These DNAA cases could have been an influence, and I agree that if they had not happened, perhaps we could have done better.”
Muhammad applauded several positive developments undertaken by the government last year to combat corruption, such as the appointment of the new Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN) Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar who took responsibility to championing the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) and lead the CPI vision of being the top 25 in ranking by the year 2033.
Other key initiatives included the passing of the Audit (Amendment) Act 1957 (Act 62) in Parliament in July 2024, amendments to the Trustee Act to prevent malpractices by trust entities, and revisions to the Companies Act to enforce mandatory disclosure of Beneficial Ownership Transparency—with a future requirement for the registry to be made public for greater transparency, he added.
However, he also addressed four possible reasons for Malaysia’s stagnant score, one of which was that businesses still feel corruption is a problem in the public sector.
He said that reaching the 25th position in the CPI as targeted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim by 2033 requires the efforts and commitment of all parties.
“To be there we need to score 68-70 points which means every year we must improve our score by at least 2 points,” he said.
Meanwhile, National Governance Planning Division (BPGN) senior director Datuk Idris Zaharudin, who was also present, said the results of this analysis will be presented to the CPI Special Task Force established last year.
“We will analyse the issues announced today before bringing them to the CPI special task force chaired by the KSN and issue a statement thereafter,” he said. – February 11, 2025