At an anti-corruption conference, the former Malaysian Bar president said “the rot starts from the top”.

He said that when there were corrupt leaders, the people would follow the example and become corrupt themselves.

Meanwhile, he said that there was also a need to ensure that enforcement officers on the ground were people of “absolute integrity”.

“They (enforcement officers) must be paid well so they do not fall victim to temptation,” he said, adding that they were the ones meant to uphold such standards of integrity.

He pointed out that corruption was not only an “evil” that affected us all, but would also affect generations to come.

Mah also touched on the need to amend the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 to ensure that whistleblowers could directly address the media, saying that, as of now, they could only go to enforcement agencies.

He said there was also a need to ensure there was little or no room for detrimental or retaliatory action towards whistleblowers.