Global Integrity Report: Malaysia - 2010

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

HIGHLIghts

This is Malaysia's first assessment in the Global Integrity Report, and its performance is unfortunately relatively poor, especially with regard to the significant implementation gap between laws on the books and their actual enforcement. Malaysia scores poorly in many areas covered by the assessment: freedom of the media (freedom of speech and expression are not legally protected while journalists fear for their safety when reporting about corruption) and election integrity are two examples. There are no regulations governing conflicts of interest in the executive branch apart from the requirement for the heads of state and government to file an asset disclosure form. Repressive laws in Malaysia hamper freedom of expression and deny citizens' access to government information; there is no right to information law in place. Likewise, the separation of government powers in Malaysia is unclear, and the executive appears to enjoy relatively unchecked power. A supreme audit institution exists but the public cannot access its reports. Malaysia's judiciary is perceived as unprofessional and partial.

From the Reporter's Notebook: Once asked if he thought the Malaysian media were doing a good job in exposing corruption, R. Nadeswaran’s (the country’s most famous investigative journalist) reply was cutting. “You must be joking. Do you know how corrupted some of our journalists are?” he said. He added corruption exists in many forms, including the giving of Datuk-ships, a Malaysian title akin to “sir”.