Research says political parties are the most involved in corruption

The country’s political parties are viewed as the most corrupted in the country beating the police institution.

This is based on the findings of the 2014 Malaysian Corruption Barometer (MCB) released by Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M).

Its president, Datuk Akbar Satar characterised the fact as unique as it is the first time that political parties in Malaysia topped the rank, usually held by the police in the global level.

Of the 2,000 Malaysian respondents, 45 percent said that the political parties were the most corrupted followed by the police with 42 percent.

This differed from last year’s total where 78 percent of Malaysians believed that the police were the most corrupted in Malaysia.

The society’s perception towards corruption as a whole has reduced with 38 percent of Malaysians feel that the efforts of combating corruption were to no avail.

According to the research, the number of respondents who are willing to report a corruption case has also reduced to 28 percent.

“They are afraid of being persecuted and second they are not sure if the whistleblower policy really helps,” said Akhbar.

Although it is only a perception research, in reality 45 percent of respondents who were interviewed have been asked to engage in bribery.

At the same time, Datuk Akhbar has called for the government to take serious steps in combating corruption.