Lim agreed that two high-ranking civil servants arrested last week “could be front men for certain politicians” as alleged by campaigner Robert Phang, a former member of the advisory panel of the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission.
The MACC has seized more than RM60 million in cash and valuables and arrested two senior civil servants in its investigations into federal allocations of RM3.3 billion for water projects in Sabah.
Phang had said the two men were “only ordinary officers” and could be front men of politicians, “because nobody would give such a big amount to these ordinary officers”, because “only politicians or ministers of that level, will have the possibility and authority to approve”.
Lim said the Op Water raid had only deepened public skepticism and cynicism about efforts to combat corruption.
While congratulating the MACC, Lim said there was no sense of elation that MACC had come of age as an independent and professional anti-corruption agency, instead, public skepticism and cynicism had only deepened.
He said Malaysians were convinced any no-holds-barred campaign against corruption would have revealed ill-gotten gains involving “not just in tens or hundreds of millions of ringgit, but in tens or a hundred times in billions”.
He said Malaysia faced the risk of being overtaken by China and Indonesia in its position on Transparency International’s corruption perception index.
In 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries, while China and Indonesia were ranked as the bottom two countries. However, Malaysia had since been downgraded and was at risk of being overtaken by other countries such as China and Indonesia which had been at the bottom of the rankings before.