TI founder: Corruption in Malaysia under control

KUALA LUMPUR: Corruption in Malaysia is under control and the country's growing investment is proof of it, says Michael Hershman, the co-Founder of Transparency International (TI).

Hershman said investment does not grow in a country dominated by corruption.

"It (corruption) chases investment away from the country. However, Malaysia has been lauded as a friendly country for foreigners to do business," he said in an interview here.

TI is the non-governmental organisation that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development.

The 2015 Index of Economic Freedom ranked Malaysia as the 31st economy freest among 178 countries, with a score of 70.8 points, an increase by 1.2 points since last year, with improvements in freedom from corruption, business freedom, and trade freedom outweighing decline in labour freedom and the management of government spending.

While pointing out that there is no country with zero corruption, Hershman said corruption was not only the government's problem and that the people should stop blaming the government.

"The government is easy to be blame, 'they are always the evil party' but you can't have corruption unless you have people involved in corruption.

"Therefore, rather than asking what the government should do, we should ask ourselves what we can do to fight corruption.

"The problem is how many people are willing to say 'no' when it comes to bribes?" he said, adding that a report showed people were reluctant to inform the authorities about corruption.

Hershman commended the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) reporting hotline as it made people more confident to come forward.

He suggested that Malaysia teach the young children since primary school about combating corruption to help create a corruption free culture in the society.

"It is important to teach our children the difference between right and wrong, because corruption is not all about putting people in jail but about educating the society and prevention," he said. - Bernama