Malaysia: Anti Corruption Agency ramping up its actions

Petty corruption is endemic in many emerging economies. Malaysia is nowhere near as bad as many countries. But even so, it niggles away at ordinary life.

Road side "parking jockeys" are actually criminal syndicates who work in league with traffic wardens to allow them to park cars illegally in return for a share of the fees charged - and the traffic wardens and police do nothing about the syndicates who threaten those who park legally in free parking spaces which the syndicates take over and mark off with cones.

Traffic police are notorious for accepting bribes, often of tiny amounts even for serious offences such as drunk-driving. This is made worse by the fact that payment of fines is complicated and time consuming: if the matter could be settled with the issue of a ticket and a payment made bank transfer instead of a visit to a police station, then at least some of the motivation for drivers to "settle it here" would be removed. Measures in recent months have gone some way to addressing this.

But the news that the Anti Corruption Agency has arrested a policeman on suspicion of taking a bribe of just MYR200 (about GBP30) that is breaking new ground. And it seems that it has had instant results.

Just days after that announcement came another: a policeman reported a motorcyclist who tried to give to the policeman a bribe of MYR10 to avoid prosecution for failing to wear a crash helmet. Motorcyclists in Malaysia have long been said to pay such small bribes to avoid prosecution for dangerous riding, speeding, riding on pavements and other potentially injurious behaviour. Motorcycles are involved in some 70% of road accidents, government figures have reported in past years but prosecutions are very rare.