ISKANDAR PUTERI: The Johor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is expected to make about 100 arrests related to graft by the end of this year.
Johor MACC director Datuk Azmi Alias said this number of arrests was based on the support given by the Johor government which continues to facilitate in efforts to combat corruption.
“The Johor leadership has greatly helped me in the efforts to combat corruption and up until the end of this year, I expect that the state MACC would have made about 100 arrests. But do these arrests mean that corruption has been fully eradicated?
“I think not. There could people who replace each of these 100 people by committing the same thing because corruption is very much related to opportunity and gaps,” Azmi said during the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) dialogue session at the Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios here today.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and Johor State Secretary Datuk Azmi Rohani were speakers at the dialogue which was attended by more than 2,700 state civil servants.
Azmi said people who occupied certain positions have higher chances of having brushes with corruption, and this was among the issues that should be addressed.
“When we assume such positions, the chances of us committing corruption is very high. That is why my aspiration for TN50 is for corruption to become the country's number one enemy.
“In the past, the government declared that drugs were the country’s number one enemy. But today, everyone has regarded corruption as the (number one) enemy instead because it is the mother of most crimes in our country,” he said.
At the same time, Azmi said that an increase in the number of people in prisons and increase in a number of court cases could become stumbling blocks for Malaysia to become successful.
“We need to look at certain indicators such as the number of people in prisons and detention centres for illegal immigrants.
“If there are still many of our citizens and foreigners in these places and if there is an increase of court cases, then we will not achieve our dream of becoming a developed country.”