BEING ranked 57th among 180 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index last year was nothing to write home about.
Making it to the 25th spot by 2033 would surely be. But between now and 2033, mountains need to be moved. A few signs of movement are beginning to emerge.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming disclosed one on Saturday: the downgrading of 12 local authorities after an anti-corruption component was introduced for the first time in rating them.
He said the 12 entities would receive "counselling". He would have done better if he had revealed their names. After all, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had highlighted transparency and accountability as two critical factors in his statement to the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2024-2028), the document of destiny, so to speak.
If the local authorities know that the people know that they have been downgraded, they will change for the better.
As Transparency International Malaysia president Dr Muhammad Mohan tells this Leader, counselling alone won't do the job. He recommends a few steps.
First, set a high key performance indicator (KPI) for the head of the local authority, say 80 per cent of the overall score.
Second, cascade the KPI down to all the officers in the local authority. Corruption and drainage cleaning, Muhammad emphasises, must be given a higher weight in the KPI.
Third, the head of the local authority must be held accountable for any failure to achieve the KPI. Fourth, if the local authority fails to achieve the KPI for two consecutive years, then the head should be replaced. "Without affirmative action, nothing is going to improve."
Finally, the Housing and Local Government Ministry must be transparent by displaying a dashboard showing every local authority's performance. "It is not to name and shame any local authority, but to demand performance and stop any form of corruption." By paying local council fees, people have every right to demand quality service and zero tolerance for corruption, he says.
Additionally, local authority officers are already paid monthly salaries by the government to provide quality service and uphold zero tolerance for corruption.
Muhammad sees two key success factors, though he doesn't name them as such, to be a top scorer in the Local Authority Star Rating System. One is the political will from the top to push for improvements and the other is the willingness of officers of local authorities to be efficient and free of corruption.
Certainly, local authorities aren't the only ones that need to change for the better. The rest of the public service must do so, too.
The lack of disclosure on downgrades does not mean there are none outside of the local authorities. Much has been written on the need for the public service to strive hard to deliver what it is supposed to do.
Disclosure of downgrades in the public service would be a good beginning, but it must not be the end. Transparency must ultimately lead to accountability if the public service is serious about not only "doing" justice but letting the people "see" that justice is being done, as the prime minister suggests in his statement.
In the absence of both, as Anwar puts it, "the avarice of a few" would hold hostage "the collective destinies of Malaysians".