Tengku Adnan stressed that the dip in public confidence in the government’s efforts to battle corruption was a 'perception problem'.
- AFP picKUALA LUMPUR, July 10 – The corruption menace involved “not only the police”, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said today, suggesting the force was being blamed for bribery involving other enforcement agencies.
Graft watchdog Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 survey showed that 76 per cent of local respondents considered the police corrupt, compared to 69 per cent who saw politicians as guilty of graft.
The force was also viewed as the most corrupt of all local institutions, scoring four out of five on the extent of corruption.
”It’s not fair that you say the police are most corrupt,” Tengku Adnan told reporters at Parliament here today,” said the Federal Territories minister.
“It could be my enforcement officer Bandaraya (city council), could be enforcement officer Majlis Daerah (local council). It’s not only the police, you must remember.”
Tengku Adnan also stressed that the dip in public confidence in the government’s efforts to battle corruption was a “perception problem”.
”We’re fighting a perception war,” he said.
The Global Corruption Barometer survey showed that 30 per cent of Malaysian respondents believed Putrajaya’s graft-fighting efforts were effective, compared to 49 per cent that felt the same in 2011.
“Main thing is if there’s no giver, there won’t be any taker. The giver should stop,” added the Umno secretary-general.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low, however, pledged yesterday to bring the survey’s findings to the Cabinet, saying: “The GCB results have made it clear that it is now a global menace that must be recognised and addressed before it is too late.”
Today, Tengku Adnan said the government was “putting all efforts to ensure this corruption is eradicated”.
The Putrajaya MP added that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was educating citizens against giving bribes.
“The enforcement officers need to be educated,” said Tengku Adnan.
“If I speak to DBKL, I advise them ‘please refrain from all untoward practices’,” he added, referring to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers under his purview.
On the GCB survey, Malaysian respondents rated the police and politicians four and 3.8 respectively on a scale of one to five, with one considered “Not at all corrupt” and five being “Extremely corrupt”.
Akhbar Satar, president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International, reportedly said yesterday that the government’s failure to catch “big fish” in high-profile graft cases may have affected Malaysians’ confidence in the war on corruption.
The 2013 Global Corruption Barometer is the biggest ever conducted by the Berlin-based watchdog, with 114,000 people respondents in 107 countries in the opinion survey on corruption and the institutions considered the most corrupt.
- themalaymail
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