In a statement, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Akhbar Satar said this eagerness had helped both countries surge upwards in their CPI rankings.
However, despite Thailand and Indonesia rising nine and 19 rungs up the rankings respectively, both countries were still behind Malaysia, which itself fell four spots, from 50 to 54 in the CPI rankings.
Akhbar said the government’s KPI for Malaysia was for the country to be ranked 30th in the CPI rankings by 2020.
“For the government to achieve this target, given the declining performance in this respect, there needs to be very serious and full commitment in combating corruption or this target will never be a reality.”
Akhbar said Malaysia’s drop in the CPI rankings could be attributed to a slew of high profile political scandals, including the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, the RM2.6 billion donation as well as the present political instability in the country.
“The delay in solving these issues may pull our ranking further down in the survey of CPI in the coming years.”
He added that Thailand’s improved ranking from 85th to 76th stemmed from greater awareness of the fight against corruption, close scrutiny by independent public organisations, and strict law enforcement.
Indonesia’s drastic rise, meanwhile, could be attributed to the strength and independence of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) which had made progress in tackling high profile cases and received overwhelming support from the public.
Meanwhile Singapore, which was previously ranked 7th in 2014, slipped down one place to 8th.
Akhbar said the CPI could influence the rate of investments made in a country as investors were increasingly wary of corruption. He also said studies showed a correlation between CPI and economic growth.
“Indeed the CPI is a helpful tool to measure corruption and tell us whether it continues to plague the country.”
How a country responded to a poor CPI, he said, indicated whether a country’s government was sincere or serious about dealing with corruption.
Akhbar said Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands, the top five ranked countries in the CPI, had a high standard of integrity in public service, openness in government contracts, effective legal systems, laws on access to information and independent anti-graft agencies.
“Can all these be achieved by Malaysia by 2020?
“The signs are not good at the moment and will remain that way unless the current government and political leaders that wield power wake up to deal with the grand and widespread corruption issues facing our country today.”