Corruption in Malaysia
Fighting Corruption in Malaysia SPA 501 FIGHTING CORRUPTION IN MALAYSIA A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay ~ Amos Bronson Alcott Corruption had always been a thorny issue for any government in the world. To a certain extent, the rate of corruption is considered as an indicator of how clean a particular country is. The level of corruption, or more accurately, the perceived level of corruption of a certain country is considered a deciding factor in determining a country’s good standing, as well as it’s earning, which is translated into the GDP and FDI figures. In short, corruption undermines good governance, distorts public policy, leads to misallocation of resources and hurts economic growth. (Bardhan 2003; Rose-Ackerman 2004) Before progressing further into the discussion of fighting corruption in Malaysia, it would be prudent to attempt to give a brief definition of what corruption really is. Various definitions had been given by numerous scholars on the concept of corruption. Deciding on a particular definition while rejecting the rest is not the intent of this paper. However, upon scrutinizing several concepts, it can be said that most, if not all definition of corruption agrees on 3 main ideas, namely; 1) It is an abuse of power, perpetrated by a person(s) in power 2) It is done for personal gain, in monetary or other forms 3) The effect would prove detrimental to the organization, or in a broader sense, to the country. Scholars who are writing about corruption in governments usually add a fourth criterion; “the abuse of public office, for private gain” (World
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Fighting Corruption in Malaysia SPA 501 Bank, 1997a: 12). A unifying and somewhat concise definition is perhaps given by United Nation Development Programme, UNDP; “the misuse of public power, office or authority, for private benefit through bribery, extortion, influence peddling, nepotism, fraud, speed money or
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Fighting Corruption in Malaysia SPA 501 Bank, 1997a: 12). A unifying and somewhat concise definition is perhaps given by United Nation Development Programme, UNDP; “the misuse of public power, office or authority, for private benefit through bribery, extortion, influence peddling, nepotism, fraud, speed money or
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