“YOU HAVE TO BEAR IN MIND THAT THE JERUNG (SHARKS) ARE HARDER TO CATCH AND MORE SOPHISTICATED. THIS IS A DIFFERENT LEVEL OF CORRUPTION AND THEY ARE MORE PROFESSIONAL,”

Harder to catch ‘sharks’ in graft cases, says lab leader

PETALING JAYA: The number of prosecutions involving high profile corruption cases should not be used as the benchmark to gauge the Government’s commitment in combating graft, said Corruption Lab leader Datuk Hisham Nordin yesterday.

Hisham, who is special officer to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, said people should also take into consideration other corruption cases that the authorities had acted against.

He said actions taken by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission were across the board, including high profile cases such as the Port Klang Free Zone issue.

“You have to bear in mind that the jerung (sharks) are harder to catch and more sophisticated. This is a different level of corruption and they are more professional,” he told newsmen at the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Open Day.

Hisham was commenting on the feedback received during the lab presentation where many members of the public had commented that only ikan bilis (small fries) were caught by commission while the jerung(sharks) were allowed to swim free.

Hisham explained that the Government did not set a minimum bribe limit when pursuing cases compared to Indonesia which only pursue cases that involved the equivalent of RM500 and above.

“Should we do that? I don’t think so because the public is also concerned about RM50 bribes and RM10 bribes. The numbers should speak for itself but then numbers are also subjective. You cannot arrest someone just for the sake of arresting,” he stressed.

Hisham said action could not be taken just based on the perception that someone was corrupt unless there was a concrete proof to back such allegations.

He said the Government had over 30 initiatives in mind to fight corruption and nine had been picked as the core initiatives.

“We hope to implement these initiatives by 2012. Nevertheless, we should be able to start seeing results by next year.

“We have a target to put Malaysia on the top 25% of the world corruption perception index,” he said.

Malaysia has been sliding down the global Corruption Perception Index ranking since 2004. The country is now ranked 56 out of 180 countries in the world with a corruption index score of 4.5 out of 10.

Battling corruption

> Stiffer punishment

> Creating name and shame offender database

> Completion of corruption trials within one year

> Zero-tolerance policy supported by whistleblower protection framework

> Study to revamp political funding

> Enforce existing laws related to politics

> Disclosure details of all Government procurement and privitisation contracts

> Support letters cannot be used to circumvent Government due process

> Effective enforcement over illegal activities