KUALA LUMPUR, May 17, 2015:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his blog today dismissed the allegations made by international media labelling Malaysia as the “most corrupt country”.
He said, the claims were derived from surveys based on perception whereas results from reliable independent group studies, such as the Transparency International Index, showed Malaysia had improved from the previous year.
“In the index, Malaysia is currently ranked No. 50 out of 175 countries, improving three spots from the year before. If we are the most corrupted country, why are we nowhere near number 175?” said Najib in his posting of frequently asked questions (FAQ).
In his post, Najib hinted at a “veteran leader” who, according to the premier, once said that the western media was biased in its description of a previous Malaysian administration.
“I find it troubling that someone who used to continually criticise the international media as being biased, now suddenly believes and takes their arguments as the truth.
“Remember this veteran leader once went on record to describe the western media as ‘biased’ in describing the administration.
“So, the western media criticising that administration is biased, but when they criticise my administration, they are not? There appears to be a double standard here.”
The 2015 Index of Economic Freedom ranked Malaysia as the 31st freest economy among 178 countries, with a score of 70.8 points, an increase of 1.2 points since 2014, with improvements in freedom from corruption, business freedom, and trade freedom outweighing a decline in labour freedom and the management of government spending.
Bloomberg rated Malaysia as the fifth most promising emerging market in 2015 and the only Asean country in its “top 10”.
“How is it that we have improved in these competitive world rankings and yet are also supposed to be as corrupt as certain parties claim us to be?”
In the same blog post, Najib also reiterated his explanation on claims describing the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) as a form of bribery, saying that the aim of the aid was to help people of low incomes.
Najib, who is also the Pekan Member of Parliament, said aside from helping the needy, BR1M had also managed to reduce leakages and increased the efficiency of the subsidy mechanism.
“BR1M is a social safety net recommended by the National Fiscal Committee, which comprises of officials from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Bank Negara and the Ministry of Finance. They are mostly economic experts, not politicians.
“BR1M also compensates the needy for any additional expenditure that they might incur as a result of GST (goods and services tax). With BR1M, GST is not regressive as the low-income groups are being compensated.”
In response to statements made against him saying that the people proved to be “ungrateful” even after receiving BR1M, Najib said, those were just claims by politicians who wanted to continue looking at it in the “context of politics”.
“People always say, ‘Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish, he lives for a life time’.
“But in the real world, we have to do both. Provide assistance to the needy and at the same time invest in education and skills as well as upgrading and improving the productivity.”
