Media statement by Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 19^th May 2011: 

BN's Economic Transformation Programme has failed to win the corruption war, improve transparency and accountability by failing to prevent the slide in Malaysia's competitiveness by six rungs from 10th in 2010 to 16 in 2011 

BN's much vaunted ETP has shown signs of failure when it is unable to prevent the slide in Malaysia's competitiveness under the Institute of Management Development (IMD) 2011 World Competitive Rankings to fall by six rungs from 10th in 2010 to 16 this year. Clearly the ETP has neither succeeded in winning the fight against graft nor in improving accountability and transparency.

Even Transparency International has expressed concerns that corruption has either worsened or stagnated with Malaysia Corruption Perception Index is now at a low-time low of No. 56 in 2010. In 2002 Malaysia was at an all-time high of No.33.

Malaysia's CPI score in 2010 was trimmed slightly from 4.5 the year before to 4.4 out of 10, with 10 being the least corrupt, putting the country on par with Namibia and Turkey. Malaysia inability to fight corruption is due to its stubborn refusal to adopt international best practices in good governance such as open tenders, performance-based and stern action against corruption and financial malpractices.

Corruption was estimated to have cost Malaysia RM28 billion annually and some have even estimated US$100 billion have been lost since the 80s. It is not surprising that the severity of the problem was exposed by the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity report that nearly RM 888 billion of illicit money was secretly taken out of the country over a nine year period from 2000-2008. Much of the illicit money can be traced to corruption and criminal activities.

Many of our greatest losses in our financial scandals goes unpunished. In fact the whistle-blower is not protected by subjected to the highest risk of punishment. Sometimes those responsible for being part of the scandal can even challenge and threaten to sue those trying to clean up.

With the 1st quarter 2011 GDP growth slowing down to 4.6% from the 4.8% fourth quarter 2010 growth, it is a big challenge for the ETP to achieve the projected 6% annual growth for 2011. Three areas must be addressed if the ETP is to have any desired impact to improve competitiveness.

Apart from corruption and failure to punish the corrupt, Malaysia's competitiveness has also been affected by the brain drain of our human talents and poor broadband connectivity. Malaysia has poor broadband service and low broadband penetration rate of less than 50%. Coupled with more than 2 million Malaysians from the best and brightest migrating overseas since Merdeka, Malaysia's slide in competitiveness is expected and unsurprising.

*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary General & MP for Bagan