KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has moved up Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2023 by three points, bringing the country to rank 57th out of 180 nations and territories.
Malaysia scored 50 out of 100. The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Malaysia scored 53 in 2019, fell to 51 in 2020 and 48 in 2021.
“One reason for Malaysia’s rebound in its CPI score is the judiciary’s continued independence in the country,” Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Dr Muhammad Mohan told Bernama today,
“It could also be due to democratic representation, participation and power transition. Malaysia rose to rank 40th globally in the Democratic Index by the Economic Intelligence Unit in 2022, scoring 7.30 out of 10.
“Despite political stability, there was an increase in voter participation due to UNDI 18, besides Malaysia witnessing a smooth transition of power post-14th and 15th General Elections, indicating the existence of and respect for democratic principles.”
Malaysia’s ranking in the CPI list also rebounded from 61 in 2022 to 57 in 2023, among the 180 countries surveyed.
Dr Muhammad advised Malaysia not to be complacent with the latest score, saying that though there has been an improvement, a lot more has to be done to ensure year-by-year improvement to meet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s vision for Malaysia to be ranked among the top 25 countries in the CPI by 2033.
He said among the positive developments that happened after the unity government came to power were the prime minister’s directive for enhancing the Code of National Governance, current investigations on undisclosed wealth of former politicians.
Apart from Singapore scoring 83 and ranked 5th on the index, Indonesia and the Philippines scored 34 and ranked 115, while Vietnam had a 41 score and ranked 83rd. Thailand scored 35 and ranked 108.
The other top four countries are Denmark (scored 90), Finland (87), New Zealand (85) and Norway (84). – January 30, 2024