China scores 40 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is perfectly clean. (Cambodia scores 20, the lowest in Asia, and Singapore 86, the highest.) China is the most dramatic example of a changing landscape. Since Xi Jinping became president last year, he has pushed a broad anti-corruption agenda that has enveloped senior Communist party officials, and domestic and foreign companies alike. But elsewhere in Asia, the rules may also be shifting. India (with a CPI score of 36) is one case. Even before Narendra Modi became prime minister, promising to shake up the country’s bribe-prone bureaucracy, the atmosphere had altered. In the last years of Manmohan Singh’s administration, revelations of collusion in the award of telecoms spectrum and coal licences scandalised the nation. Subsequent fear among bureaucrats that they could be accused of corruption led to a virtual standstill in decision-making. Mr Modi’s task is to end that paralysis. His reputation rests on the perception that he can cut through red tape while ensuring probity. Leaders in other countries, too, have pledged to tackle corruption. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, president of the Philippines, has pursued anti-bribery cases against senior politicians, including his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Transparency International acknowledges improvement, but corruption still costs the Philippines an estimated 1.8 per cent of economic output a year. In Indonesia, the rise of Joko Widodo from obscurity to the presidency was partly predicated on his reputation as a clean politician. Indonesian authorities are seen to have made some progress – for example, recently convicting the chief justice of the constitutional court on corruption charges. Still, Indonesia’s CPI score remains low, at 32.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 04:24:42 +0000