DAP is not surprised that Malaysia’s score in the global rule of law index dipped 1.4 % to 0.57, ranking 54 out of the 139 nations surveyed in the World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2021. This contrasts with Malaysia’s ranking of 47th place out of 128 countries last year. The deterioration in Malaysia’s rule of law position requires the need to courageously speak truth to power, particularly a full investigation on the illicit financial outflow of funds involving prominent active politicians as exposed in the Pandora papers.
Based on the United Nations and International Monetary Fund documents, the Washington-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) ranked Malaysia third among 147 countries for illicit financial outflows. According to the latest 10-year report by GFI titled Illicit Financial Flows to and from 148 Developing Countries: 2006-2015, Malaysia lost between US$22.9 billion (RM94.22 billion) and US$33.7 billion (RM138.66 billion) in illicit outflows from 2006 until 2015.
There are more than 330 politicians exposed by the Pandora Papers from 90 countries, which unfortunately included prominent Malaysians. The Pandora Papers is part of the scandal of illicit financial flows (IFFs) which the Global Financial Integrity Report (GFI) defines as funds that are illegally earned, transferred, and/or utilized across an international border. The funds are sourced from criminal and corruption activities.
Despite public pressure from opposition MPs, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission(MACC) has stubbornly refused to launch an investigation. This has raised public scepticism and doubts about MACC’s credibility and also justified suspicion that MACC will turn a blind eye when active politicians supporting the government are involved. Politicians who are normally seditiously vocal on racist and extremist religious issues hostile towards minority groups, have kept a loud silence on the Pandora Papers.
Due to the lack of action by MACC against money laundering by pro-government politicians, Bank Negara was seen as the only institution left that could act against the illicit financial outflows. After all, USD33.7 billion is a huge sum by international standards. Unfortunately Bank Negara appears to be following the MACC and is maintaining an unholy silence on this financial scandal.
The Federal government must be reminded that the eight factors used in WJP’s assessments show the deterioration of the state of rule of law in Malaysia covering constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice. The decline in Malaysia’s performance will not help to bolster investor confidence and public faith in the credibility of the government to protect basic constitutional rights that every citizen is equal before the law by protecting the public from the abuses and excesses of powers of the government.
Malaysia can do well to restore public confidence and our position in the rule of law index by acting and punishing those involved as well as recommend stringent measures to prevent illicit financial flows out of Malaysia and how to improve transparency, accountability and good governance.