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Islamic nations among most corrupt: Malaysia
PM
Web posted at: 8/29/2006 7:45:15
Source ::: REUTERS
kuala lumpur • Islamic nations are ranked as among
the world’s most-corrupt and the fight to tackle the
scourge could be tough due to poverty and poor
governance, Malaysia’s prime minister said
yesterday.
Taking his anti-corruption message to the rest of
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
nations, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chairs the
group, said there were no quick fixes to completely
eradicate the problem.
“I am deeply saddened to note that Muslim countries,
as a group, do not rate very highly when it comes to
perceptions of corruption,” he said at the opening
of the group’s first forum on graft.
“I believe that many of the development challenges
that the Muslim Ummah (community) faces have their
roots in problems of poverty, poor governance and
limited education opportunities,” he said.
Citing Transparency International’s 2005 report, he
said the Muslim country with the best record could
only rank 29th out of 158 countries surveyed.
“More than half of the bottom ten places were
occupied by Muslim countries,” he said. Chad was
ranked as the most corrupt.
“The current condition that Muslim countries find
themselves is deeply alarming and distressing,” he
said in a speech.
The 57-member OIC comprises 1.8 billion people,
ranging from wealthy Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to poor
African states such as Chad and Sudan.
Transparency International said the perception that
Muslim nations were among the most corrupt had
nothing to do with Islam.
“It’s more to do with ... the income level,” David
Nussbaum, chief executive of the Berlin-based group,
told Reuters. “Some of the countries right at the
bottom of the list are very poor.”
Abdullah, who came to office in late 2003,
convincingly won elections in 2004 after campaigning
to clean up corruption and cronyism.
He has charged a minister for land with corruption
and dropped another minister from cabinet and his
party for money politics, but critics say he could
do more.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in a
prepared speech delivered at the forum, put the
blame on unethical multinational firms doing
business in Muslim countries.
“I also wish to identify the role of MNCs, who are
responsible for spreading the curse of corruption,”
he said.
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