Poor corruption score shows GTP failed, says DAP

Poor corruption score shows GTP failed, says DAP

By Shannon Teoh

December 02, 2011
Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — The DAP said today “Malaysia’s worst score in 10 years” under graft watchdog Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) “underscores the failure of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP) of fighting corruption.”

Malaysia’s CPI dropped for the third year running, slipping to 4.3 this year, leaving it in 60th place out of 183 countries compared with 37th place when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as prime minister in 2003.

“Failure to fight corruption will certainly lead to failure of (the prime minister’s) Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) of transforming Malaysia into a high-income economy by 2020,” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (picture) said in a statement.

The Penang chief minister noted that TI Malaysia deputy president Mohammad Ali had commented that “Malaysia’s CPI has continued to decline as ‘elements of state’ that facilitated ‘grand corruption’ were still prevalent.”

“Such a damning indictment by TI explains Umno’s vicious attacks against DAP at the Umno general assembly centred on racism, lies and vulgar language.

“Umno’s attack on soft targets like Christians, Chinese, Bersih chair S. Ambiga and DAP as trying to oppress the Malays, and even calling voters of DAP bastards, is a desperate attempt to distract from its failure to address corruption, cronyism and abuse of power,” he said.

The Bagan MP pointed out the Umno assembly saw “no criticism levelled at the expose by the 2010 Auditor-General Report of over-expenditure of RM3.7 billion by government departments.”

“No mention is made about the cows and condos scandal involving the family of a federal minister,” he added, referring to Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil who gained the support of her wing after insisting she had nothing to do with the RM250 million cattle-farming project awarded to her family.

The police are currently probing the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project for criminal breach of trust after PKR made repeated allegations of abuse including a RM13.8 million purchase of two luxury condominiums and RM3.4 million to buy land in a residential area in Putrajaya.

Pemandu, the government unit in charge of the GTP and ETP, had blamed yesterday a new measure which dragged down Malaysia’s overall score, which would otherwise have been 4.5, allowing it to hold on to the 56th place it held last year.