This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 15, 2024 - July 21, 2024

Civil society organisations (CSOs) welcomed with some reservations the launch of Malaysia’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2024-2028 (NACS) last month by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The NACS is an extension or continuation of the National Anti-Corruption Plan 2019-2023 (NACP), the nation’s first ever comprehensive anti-corruption framework.

The NACP had 115 initiatives to be implemented over a five-year period. Despite the pandemic and rocky period that followed, from 2020 onwards, the NACP reportedly achieved an amazing 77% of its deliverables.

The NACS document briefly laid out several factors that contributed to the delay in completing the other initiatives. The process of trying to amend the constitution without a two-thirds majority by all the governments in the last five years was a major setback in achieving the NACP’s target. CSOs would definitely support the detailed publication to parliament that 77% of the deliverables have indeed been completed, or even a confirmation by the Auditor-General’s Office of the claim made.

The NACS explains that corruption practices manifest because of various underlying factors. Administrative failure, deficient internal controls, non-compliance with regulations, conflict of interest, inadequacies within law enforcement agencies and insufficient anti-corruption measures are the primary causes. This is based on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) findings in 2024. Even more shocking, MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki disclosed that on a macroeconomic scale, the detrimental impact of corruption in Malaysia is profound, culminating in losses amounting to a staggering RM277 billion in economic output from 2019 to 2023. This figure is equivalent to the gross domestic product of Johor and Penang combined.

One of the key elements for the success of action plans and strategies for governments, regional cooperation groups, CSOs and international organisations around the world is that all deliverables ought to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely, or SMART. While the NACS broadly documents the strategies that the government wants to achieve in the short, medium and long term, these deliverables have to be transparently monitored with measurable outputs over a specified period of time.

We urge the National Governance Planning Division of the MACC to collaborate with the relevant government agencies, institutions and CSOs on each of the 60 strategies, to put up a publicly accessible dashboard with quantifiable baselines, targets and milestones that are reviewed on a fixed periodic basis, with links to the completed activities, roadblocks and reports.

It is only when the progress is transparent and accessible, and seen by all of society that public perception of the government’s commitment to eradicating corruption will improve, resulting in a positive impact on the nation’s Corruption Perceptions Index in the long term. The prime minister has set an ambitious target of achieving a global ranking of 25 by 2033.

That requires Malaysia to score about 68-70 points out of 100. As at 2023, our score is 50 points and our global rank is 53. It is crucial to have government stability, consistent policies, acceleration of institutional reforms and the political will to fight corruption if Malaysia wants to achieve the target within the next 10 years. For the past 12 years, we have been struggling to maintain our scores above 50 (see chart) and the reason for this is the failure of the political leadership to have clear affirmative strategies and action plans to accelerate law reforms on public procurement and political financing, strengthen whistleblower protection, ensure the independence of MACC, parliamentary reforms and a separation of powers between the attorney general and public prosecutor.

In the interest of independence and transparency, it is vital that the agencies responsible for the deliverables under each strategy should not be the sole party monitoring or reporting on their progress. This task should be shared with external and independent parties such as CSOs, community-based organisations, the Bar Council and academics. This will ensure that no stone is left unturned in ensuring the integrity of deliverables. It will also prevent any allegations by critics that the deliverables are a mere box-ticking exercise.

Notwithstanding the encouraging show of commitment by the Madani government towards the anti-corruption initiative with the launch of the NACS, CSOs remain concerned with some of the changes observed between the NACP and NACS.

There remain some perceived gaps that raise serious concerns. One key area is the removal of the separation of powers of the attorney general and the public prosecutor under NACP initiative 4.1.2. This separation of powers has been studied by various government committees since 2018, with none of the reports made publicly accessible. Two years into the Madani government’s tenure, there has yet to be a timeline provided to the rakyat on the separation, and now this initiative is glaringly absent from the NACS.

Another key area is NACP initiative 1.2.7, on the introduction of term limits for the prime minister, chief minister and menteri besar.

A timeline, road map and clear explanations to the rakyat on the next step forward is necessary. Unwarranted delays in such and other key reforms affect the confidence of the rakyat. Foreign investors would also need to be confident about the country’s stability and good governance. The public coffers and the stability of the government could be hurt if the same “secrecy models” are used. Key to this is the announcement of an Access to Information Law that is expected to be conceived much earlier than expected.

A corruption-free Malaysia remains a pipe dream, and we can only work towards this goal with a collective action approach involving government, business and civil society. The setting up of various caucuses between civil society groups and business chambers would be an important stepping stone towards a more open, accountable government.

Together we will achieve a nation without corruption, a society with integrity.

Dr Muhammad Mohan is the president of Transparency International Malaysia. Cynthia Gabriel is an anti-corruption and good governance advocate and founder of the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4).

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