Hard to stamp out corruption as M’sians ‘not busybody’, says Masidi

[superadmin]

KOTA KINABALU – A Sabah state minister has identified cultural malaise as one of the factors preventing corruption from being stamped out in Malaysia.  

Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is Sabah minister for local government and housing, said the people are not nosy individuals, and this has allowed graft to thrive in society.

Masidi, who is also the state’s finance minister, said this after learning that Malaysia came in last in a 2019 Transparency International Report’s ranking on the percentage of those who agree that it is socially acceptable to report corruption.

Indonesia ranked first at 85%, followed by Myanmar at 80%, Thailand (66%), Cambodia (66%), Vietnam (65%), and Malaysia, which came in last, at 48%.

Masidi said the implications of the report show that 52% of those interviewed in Malaysia by Transparency International are willing to “close one eye” when it comes to corruption.

“I am a bit surprised by the Transparency International statistics,” he said.

“To put it simply, this means Malaysians are more forgiving when it comes to corruption.

“And it was based on the ground (survey) that they do not want to be nosy over the affairs of other people,” he said after launching an anti-corruption forum during a corporate and small-and-medium scale businesses forum here yesterday.

Masidi said the country has sufficient laws to curb graft and protect witnesses. However, the problem is that no one is willing to come forward and report instances of corruption due to the prevalence of such lackadaisical attitudes.

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