Bribery, Corruption & Transparency International

Wikipedia indicates that “bribery” is a pecuniary to corruption; an act implying money or gift that alters the behavior of the recipient.. hmmmmm. But what if an alleged bribery takes place, but the behavior of the recipient has not been altered, is it still considered to be bribery? Of course, it is not easy to prove that the behavior has not been altered, unless there is proof of such, and to the anti-corruption authorities, as long as there is proof of bribery, then proof of alteration of behavior becomes secondary, which will lead to automatic corruption charges, and therefore it is a crime. But is it? Maybe, it all depends on the laws of the country involved, as to the definition of bribery and corruption as stated in the legislature, which probably will extend the meaning in Wikipedia to another level.

Following along the same line of reasoning, will cash incentives be considered bribery to the workers of a company, if the company decides to hold a competition for the most outstanding employee of the week, month or year, and that such reward will either be a trip to a destination, all expenses paid or cash bonus. Then is this considered bribery? The person who wins the award definitely is encouraged to perform better, which definitely alters the normal performance rate of a person. Splitting hairs? Hardly, in the eyes of the company offering the incentive, they need to get more performance out of their workers, and incentives are considered to be one of the boosting effects to alter the course of performance improvement. But can it be considered “bribery and corruption” then?

Another story which came out in a printed media, which said that a retail eatery would like to extend the number of seatings, by putting tables outside on the street – a common practice by eateries in housing areas in Malaysia (where the chargeable parking fee time has expired after office hours or during weekends) – according to the local council, this is an infringement according to the by-laws, but at the discretion of the local council, this was allowed and an application for a license to conduct business of this nature needs to be done. However, also at the discretion of the local council, which decided that this is no longer allowed after the eatery applied for such a license, and the alleged advice given was to wait for the enforcement unit and “negotiate for a settlement”. Now, of course, this leads to bribery and corruption, but the eatery has to pay for something which was originally allowed, but somehow discontinued, for reasons unknown to the eatery owner. So, how does this work? The definition of bribery is clear, but the laws or by-laws of licensing are not so clear, which lead to the bribery exercise, which either way is illegal, and the public is confused, to say the least.

Let’s look at cultural practices, the Chinese, for instance, where during the Chinese Luna New Year, it has been the practice to give Ang Pow (Red Packets) to the unmarried children and grandchildren. The practice has been extended to giving Ang Pow to who we meet during this festive period (irrespective of their marital status), that’s what we were told. Now, other races, get to know about this, and in a multi-cultural country like Malaysia, it has been a practice to give to the Garbage collectors the ang pow during the 15 days of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Why? I asked when I was a child. The answer given by my mother was that these Garbage Collectors (although they did not originally asked) will have an incentive to work harder; the actual meaning (I found out later) was an incentive for them to collect some of the bigger items like broken smaller pieces of furniture – which they do not classify as garbage. In later years, when I became an adult, the garbage collectors deem it as a “tradition” to collect from Chinese families the Ang Pow during this festive season, and so, they ask for ang pows from Chinese families – which should they ask, that can be deem bribery and corruption, but initially they did not ask for it, and so, can we classify this ‘voluntary contribution’, as corruption?

The latest events relating to corrupt practices in Malaysia, involve the allege "kickbacks" on the purchase of Scorpene Submarines, where a French legal team came for a fact finding mission that the French company, DCNS, the Vendor, allegedly paid out 114 Million Euros to a local Malaysian Company as commission. Well, at this stage, it is still an allegation, nothing more, nothing less.

There have been a number of reports on corrupt practices in Malaysia, of which there have been people who were charged, but some were released, due to “insufficient evidence and proof” while others have been convicted. Some cases involved political corruption, while others, I suppose, are either commercial or against legal charges. Transparency International announced the results in 2011 that Malaysia has a CPI of 4.3 out of 10 (10 being least corrupt) and we are, now ranked 60 out of 182 countries worldwide, a fall of 4 places from the previous year where we were at ranked 56 – but we are still in the upper echelon, as some people may point out but can we be considered more positive where corrupt practices are concerned – apparently not, according to TI, because we have lost 13 places since 2008.

Of course, Malaysia is much better off than Somalia and North Korea, according to Transparency International where their ratings are both at 182. But our neighbor’s (Singapore) position is only 5, so looks like we have a lot of work to do before we are even close to that position. There can only be hope that we have better ratings from TI; but in the meantime, we better get our definition of bribery and corruption correct, failing which, our index may increase, if we do not synchronize it with the international standards.

Bribery and corruption cannot be curtailed by the man on the street alone. Sincere changes need to be made by the Administration for the betterment of the situation. We can only look forward to the handling of such for the sake of the country and its people. If we are to move forward to get out of the title "Third World country", then more needs to be done. This is left to be seen.