Guan Eng: MACC chief should resign after rubbishing TI’s report on corruption

Lim said the CPI is accepted by all countries and also by multi-lateral institutions such as the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. – Bernama photo

KUCHING (July 23): Democratic Action Party (DAP) national chief Lim Guan Eng has called for resignation of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki, after the latter had questioned the veracity, credibility and reliability of Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

According to Lim, who is Bagan MP, the CPI is accepted by all countries and also by multi-lateral institutions such as the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“It is shocking that the chief anti-corruption enforcer of the country rubbishes the TI’s CPI presumably because Malaysia has been downgraded with a low ranking due to MACC’s dismal and pathetic performance in combating corruption,” he said in a statement yesterday.

It is said that Azam had disputed the findings of the TI’s report on corruption, stating that the CPI did not necessarily portray the ‘real corruption situation’ because it was merely based on perception.

In this regard, Lim said there was ‘something very wrong with Azam’.
“He should know that the scourge of corruption is not a fundamental flaw occurring in isolation, but a complex problem interwoven within a mosaic of social, economic and political structures.

“Corruption is a social problem as it is an economic and political problem.

“How can he (Azam) succeed in fighting corruption if (he) does not even understand the nature, shape and context of corruption, and how it happens.

“He would do well to read the various books on corruption by the late academic Syed Hussein Alatas,” said the Federal Opposition lawmaker.

It is noted that Azam had cast doubt over TI’s CPI when responding to a question in Putrajaya on Thursday on how Malaysia would improve its position on the index.

Lim also questioned if Azam was holding a grudge against TI merely because on the 2021 CPI, Malaysia had dropped five spots to rank 62 out of 180 countries, the lowest ranking in history.

Adding on, Lim said the CPI for Malaysia this year could decline further with many corruption charges being used as a political weapon against opposition MPs, as well as the charges against pro-government MPs being withdrawn or not prosecuted despite arrests having been made.

“If the CPI by TI is not seen as a reliable and credible yardstick, then what global standard would Azam propose as an alternative?

“Clearly, Azam is not fit to helm the MACC, because a new chief commissioner who is clean, competent, independent and neutral, not subject to political manipulation is needed to win the war against corruption in Malaysia,” stressed Lim.

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