CORRUPTION: THE LAW AND CHALLENGES IN MALAYSIA

Muzaffar Syah MALLOW
Dr. Senior Lecturer,Faculty of Syariah & Law,Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM),Bandar Baru Nilai, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, Malaysia Email: muzaffarsyah.mallow@yahoo.com

Abstract

Corruption is not only a serious problem affecting Malaysia but in all countries. Every country has to face with the problem concerning corruption whether they like it or not. The issue of corruption can be regarded as a universal issue and for the last many years, there have been many efforts taken at both international and national level to combat with the issue concerning corruption. Malaysia has also taken many steps to deal with the issue concerning corruption. In February 2018, Malaysian were concern over the released reports from the Transparency International’s (TI) which has exposed the country dropped in two points in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for the year 2017. According to the reports, Malaysia, which scored 47 points, went down seven places in the overall ranking of 180 countries to 62 places. In 2016 Malaysia ranked 55 among 176 countries, with a score of 49 out of 100. In 2015, Malaysia was ranked 54 out of 168 countries, with a score of 50. The index ranks countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people. It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. Ever since the report been released, many peoples in the country have expressed their high concern and dissatisfaction at the government and various agencies for the continue drop in the country international level corruption index. The issue has also become hot issue during the country recent 14TH General Election which has resulted the drastic change in the country political landscape since the country gained its independence in 1957. The new government headed by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) has made many promises to combat corruption and has made pledges to combat with the issue at their very best. The new government has also invited Malaysian to assist them in combating corruption in the country. As such, it is the object of the paper to examine about the issue concerning corruption in the country by identifying the definition of corruption and forms it might take, analysing the causes and effects of corruption, examine all the relevant laws which are currently been used to deal with the issue of corruption, and find ways for improvement.

Keywords: Corruption, Law, Challenges,