Speaking at a forum hosted by the Rotary Club on “Ethics and Integrity in Business and Professions”, Azeem said the spirit of good governance is about combining integrity with competence, which would unleash the full potential of business organisations and the country.
“But at a time when the country needs a serious turnaround, do we have the most talented people with integrity leading us? We can see that Malaysia has not shown much progress,” he said.
“In 2010, Bursa Malaysia’s index was at about 1,500 points; fast forward 13 years later, it is still hovering around the same level, compared to the New York stock exchange and Nasdaq, which have grown by many times over within the same period,” he said.
Azeem also questioned if there was real value creation in Malaysia over the past 10 years. He said the country’s income per capita was US$13,100 (RM58,100) in 2022 as compared to countries like South Korea which achieved US$42,500 (RM188,500) per year.
“South Korea gained independence only nine years ahead of Malaysia but has more than three times the income per capita.
“We owe it to ourselves to be at a higher standard. At the same time, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is about US$400 billion (RM1.8 trillion) a year, when it should be making at least US$1 trillion (RM4.4 trillion) by now if it had grown at the same rate as South Korea,” he said.
Azeem said Malaysia was seeing an opportunity cost of US$600 billion (RM2.6 trillion) per year due to the lack of competence and integrity.
He said the media and civil society needed to work together to get the country on the right track.
“The media and civil society can play a role in making sure that businesses are held accountable for any decisions they make and help educate the public on what is going on in the country,” he said.
Change business practices to combat corruption
In a separate discussion panel, Bridget Welsh of Nottingham University suggested that organisations must start a new practice by rewarding good practices and ethics among their employees who are involved in exposing any corruption and unethical behaviours happening at the workplace.
“If these people are being punished (for becoming a whistleblower), they will move away from the organisation and it will lead to the birth of the gatekeepers for corruption,” she said.
Welsh said if this practice is followed through, businesses would become role models for young people in their respective professions.
She said that since the 2013 general election, there was a growing trend of higher mobilisation from civil society about fighting against corruption.
She said this has increased awareness among the public about the reality of corruption in Malaysia.
She believed the results of this trend could be proven from the outcomes of the past two general elections as there was a “protest vote” by the public against corruption towards Barisan Nasional (BN).
Corruption was a key reason for BN’s defeat in the previous two general elections as former prime minister Najib Razak, along with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and several other senior party officials, faced dozens of corruption charges.
In August, Najib started a 12-year jail term for corruption and money laundering in a case linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal. He still faces four other trials.