Political corruption detrimental to Southeast Asia

Recently in August 2022, Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak began his 12-year prison sentence after losing his final appeal in a case linked to the irregularities in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, with the top court unanimously upholding his conviction and sentence. Southeast Asian experts like, Bridget Welsh, at Malaysia’s Nottingham University have said, “For this decision, which is the first of many cases involving this particular scandal, to move in this particular direction really is a testimony to the rule of law in Malaysia, and the strengthening of the demands for the rule of law in Malaysia.” There is a perception that corruption has increased in Malaysia, especially after the exposure of scandals like the 1MDB and other recent major corruption scandals. But as per a report by the World Bank, “Malaysia’s performance on international indicators and rankings on governance, accountability and transparency have improved as a result of some of these reforms and other on-going efforts.” Its ranking has improved from 61st in 2018 to 51st in 2019 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. Two of the country's top corruption watchdogs have given the new leadership of the Corruption Eradication Commission a red mark for performance in the first half of 2020, citing poor enforcement against special crimes and the many controversies embroiling the commission,” the Indonesia Corruption Watch and Transparency International Indonesia wrote in their joint report on KPK’s performance published in June 2020. Therefore, what can be seen is corruption is rooted in the political systems, top leadership and sometimes even in the anti-corruption bodies in some southeast Asian countries and this makes the process of remedial efforts difficult.