KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): Malaysia’s overall rule of law score decreased 1.7% in this year’s World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index.

In the 2022 index released on Wednesday (Oct 26), the country slipped one notch to rank 55th out of 140 countries worldwide.  

The index is presented by the WJP, an independent, multidisciplinary organisation working to create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide.

Regionally, Malaysia ranked seventh out of 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific.

The region’s top performer is New Zealand (ranked seventh out of 140 globally), followed by Australia and Japan.

The three countries with the lowest scores in the region are the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia (139th globally).  

WJP said that in the last year, the scores of 10 out of 15 countries declined in East Asia and the Pacific.

It said of those 10 countries, six also declined in the previous year.

Among upper-middle income countries, Malaysia ranked 13th out of 42.

Meanwhile, WJP said that for the fifth year in a row, the rule of law has declined globally.

The organisation’s original data in 140 countries and jurisdictions shows that adherence to the rule of law fell in 61% of countries this year — including Malaysia.

It said that globally, 4.4 billion people live in countries where the rule of law has declined over the past year.

WJP executive director Elizabeth Andersen said the world is emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, but the global rule of law recession continues.

“At its heart, the rule of law is about fairness — that is, accountability, equal rights, and justice for all." And a less fair world is bound to be a more volatile one, she said.

WJP’s index data shows that authoritarian trends that predate the pandemic — such as weaker checks on executive power and increased attacks on the media — continue to erode the rule of law globally.  

However, declines are less widespread and extreme than last year, when Covid-19 shutdowns dramatically disrupted justice systems, and governments exercised emergency powers that curtailed civic freedoms and bypassed transparency mechanisms.