Some excerpts from the article -
The Penang chief minister pointed out that Malaysia is still ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world, having bled over one trillion ringgit though backchannels over the past decade or so.
“Malaysia has been ranked the most corrupt country in the world, along with China, in a recent report by the Asia-Pacific Fraud Survey Report Series 2013,”
The Penang lawmaker also expressed surprise at last night’s fuel price hike announcement, noting that it had come at a time when other nations have either maintained their rates or even reduced them.
“If we look at other countries, India is cutting their petrol price by 65 paise (four cents) and in England, they are cutting by five pence (27 cents) and yet in Malaysia, we are increasing petrol price by 20 cents,” he said.
Last December, international anti-corruption group Global Financial Integrity (GFI) revealed in a report that Malaysia had lost over US$370 billion (RM1.2 trillion) to illicit outflows in 10 years since 2002 and US$54 billion in 2011 alone.
The massive loss of capital via illegal channels put Malaysia at fourth in a list of countries worldwide haemorraging funds to crime, corruption and misreporting, behind only China, Russia and Mexico in terms of severity. Malaysia was fifth in the previous edition.
“Anonymous shell companies, tax haven secrecy, and trade-based money laundering techniques drained nearly a trillion dollars from the world’s poorest in 2011, at a time when rich and poor nations alike are struggling to spur economic growth,” GFI chief Raymond Barker said in a release accompanying the report.
“This study should serve as a wake-up call to world leaders: The time to act is now.”
In its report titled “Illicit Financial Outflows from Developing Countries: 2002-2011”, GFI categorised such activity as all unrecorded private financial outflows involving capital that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilised, generally used by residents to accumulate foreign assets in contravention of applicable capital controls and regulatory frameworks.
It explained that this included funds earned legitimately, such as the profits of a legitimate business, as their transfer abroad in violation of exchange control regulations or corporate tax laws would render the capital illicit.
Asia as a whole were the largest “exporters” of illicit wealth, accounting for 39.6 per cent of the US$946.7 billion that GFI recorded in 2011. The total figure also represented a 13.7-per cent growth from the previous year, and an average of 10.2 per cent annually since 2002.
The worsening was also reflected in Malaysia, which has seen illicit outflows climb gradually from US$19.7 billion in 2002 to a peak of US$64.5 billion in 2010 before dipping to US$54 billion the year after. On average, US$37 billion left the country unrecorded for every year of the decade.
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I experienced a different form of corruption the other day, trying to get a taxi from KL Sentral. I was at the coupon counter by the airport train exit. As usual, there were no taxis and the usual '45 minutes wait' sign was displayed. The staff were rude and uncaring.
Outside there was a whole row of taxis parked at the far side. The drivers were waiting for a passenger who would pay 'big money'. One driver offered to take me for RM15 which was reasonable as the coupon fare is RM12. But before I could say anything, the leader of the "taxi mafia" asked the driver in Malay where I was going and how much. When the driver told him, the big boss told him to charge at least RM30, thinking I would not understand. The driver walked off. I told the 'leader' he was corrupt and everyone else was corrupt and what about the signs
and of course he just laughed and walked off. I watched him approaching other passengers to try and get expensive custom for the drivers.
All this time there was a policeman sitting on a bench but of course he did nothing. The staff at the coupon counter just shrugged, I suppose they accept this corrupt mafia is operating outside the door.
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