Number 50 on global graft index nothing great, says Kit Siang
Published on: Monday, December 08, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya should not celebrate despite moving up three spots to number 50 on the Transparency International (TI) index, said Lim Kit Siang, as the country had yet to achieve anything noteworthy in fighting graft."There are no grounds for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be ecstatic and to talk about 'not resting on our laurels'," Lim said in a statement, referring to the country's performance in TI's Corruption Perception Index.The DAP parliamentary leader said Malaysia had yet to achieve any major accomplishment on the anti-corruption front under Najib's administration.
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He added that for the sixth consecutive year, Najib's administration registered a low ranking in the index compared with his two predecessors."No wonder Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has always boasted that corruption was worse now than during his 22-year reign as the Prime Minister."Lim said Dr Mahathir's successor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, could also make a similar claim during his reign from 2003 to 2009."Of course, Dr Mahathir has blissfully ignored another reality, that it was during his reign that Malaysia began its slide into corruption.
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"Under Malaysia's first three Prime Ministers, corruption was never a major problem and was under control."Lim said the biggest controversy in Parliament back in the 1970s was Bank Rakyat's RM65 million unaccounted for, which he debated in 1979.
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But since the 1980s, he said corruption and financial scandals involving billions of ringgit have exploded with alarming regularity.He cited three incidences: the RM2.5 billion in investment losses by Bumiputra Malaysia Finance scandal; the missing RM600 million by tin-buying firm Maminco; and the RM1.5 billion involving cooperatives."That was in the 1980s."In the 1990s, there were the RM30 billion Bank Negara foreign exchange and RM11 billion Perwaja scandals."He said in the last decade, there was the multi-billion ringgit Scorpene and defence procurement issue and the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal. Lim said the root of corruption, which was money politics in government parties, had not been curbed and instead expanded."It has been estimated by Umno inner circles that it takes more than RM10 million to win a vice-president position and more than RM1 million to win a supreme council position."Lim added that under Najib's helm, the sky was the limit for financial scandals, with 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) outstanding loan of Rm42 billion as an example.He said even Dr Mahathir wrote about his frustration over 1MDB not being discussed at the Umno general assembly.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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