00:00So, Dr. Mohamed, are you satisfied with the score or do you think that we could do better
00:16with regards to this?
00:18Well, I wouldn't say we are satisfied with the score because basically we maintained
00:23the score.
00:25If you look at it, last year we were 50 points and I mentioned that we need to go up by two
00:31points every year to reach that target within the next eight, nine years.
00:36But when you maintain at 50 points, it means next year the job gets tougher.
00:41It means that we need to go up by about three or four points.
00:44So that makes it a very challenging thing for the country.
00:50So that's where we are and I hope all the efforts being done by the NACS and also in
00:57the task force will actually help to increase the score.
01:02So I'm a little bit disappointed but hopefully it can be improved next year.
01:11What are the main areas which you think that we should be looking at with regards to improving
01:17our scores?
01:19The main areas, as I mentioned, is I think we, first of all, the government should look
01:24at the reforms, institutional reforms, legal reforms that civil society has recommended.
01:32And as I said, the Whistleblower Protection Act is one of the lowest hanging fruit for
01:37the last five, six years.
01:40And I don't know where is the stumbling block.
01:43Is it at the cabinet level or the last minute?
01:45Because all these agencies, they sit together with us, and the law division in the Prime
01:49Minister's Department, or we call them by you, they have done a good job.
01:53They consult, they get our feedbacks and so on.
01:57And all the government agencies are there.
01:59So sometimes I'm a bit puzzled that when it goes to cabinet, somebody puts a spanner in
02:04between and then the whole thing gets bogged down.
02:07So I think this is where the government must be careful because while you want to make
02:12the reforms, but time is running out and you've got to speed up.
02:17So the Whistleblower Protection Act, I was told that in March it will go through, and
02:21I hope there will be no more delays after that.
02:24And the other one is the Freedom of Information Bill, supposed to go in July.
02:30This is what we have been assured.
02:32So if there is another delay, then it's another setback.
02:36So these are the type of reforms that we have been pushing for.
02:41Now the other important thing, I think the elephant in the room, is the issue of businesses
02:49who tend to give us feedback that they find that the corruption or bribery of offering
02:56and receiving is still there.
02:59And these businesses, many of them, do engage with the public sector.
03:03So this CPI is a measure of corruption in the public sector.
03:09So that is why I'm saying that we have to address this.
03:12And you saw in one of the scores there, IMD Survey, they have a partner in Malaysia called
03:19Malaysian Productivity Council.
03:21And we hope that they can engage with the various chambers of commerce, like the Indian
03:26Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Malay Chamber of Commerce, and to find out
03:31really from the business community what is really their problem.
03:34Where is the bottleneck?
03:37Because if I were a businessman, I got a government tender, I won it, now I have to
03:43kick off the project.
03:44But all these delays that are happening, it's going to affect my business.
03:50So that opens the door for corruption.
03:52We are not only talking about the government agencies, we always tend to also forget the
03:57local councils.
03:58You know, at the state level, we have the local councils in all the towns and all that.
04:03Now without their approval, you cannot proceed with the project, execution of the project.
04:07So this is one of the things that I think the focus should be there.
04:11Find out really from this private sector, why is the problem.
04:15But do you expect, with how things are going, the government, how things are being done
04:20today, do you expect it to go down or to go up?
04:25Well, as I said, we are still early in, coming early in February.
04:29As I said, the reform, institutional reforms, the legal reforms, that must come through.
04:37If these things are coming through, and public feels, I mean, sorry, the respondents feel
04:43that there is some improvement, government efficiency for example, all these business
04:47people who are also the respondents in this survey, if they feel that efficiency has improved,
04:54nowadays you find that to get an approval, instead of taking three months, three weeks,
05:00that people can see immediately, you know, and so on.
05:04Now the other one more thing, very important, which I may not have mentioned, is the judiciary.
05:09In all these surveys, if you go very deeply and look at the survey questions, they talk
05:14about judicial independence.
05:18So far, I would say, since the year 2017, 2016 until now, Malaysia has shown improvement
05:26in the rule of law, judicial independence index in the World Justice Project survey.
05:33So we are now ranked in 2023, 55, our rank.
05:38And I think credit should be given to the Chief Justice, after she came in, the image
05:44of the judiciary has actually risen up.
05:48So very important, the judicial independence must be there.
05:52So that is part of the survey.
05:54So if anything happens there, then it will also affect the CPI.
05:59So the CPI is a very holistic measure, it is not only about MACC arresting a number
06:04of people and then you measure, that is just only one dimension.
06:07There are many, many aspects to this as we discussed today.
06:14Thank you very much.
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