Corruption rife in Asian justice, regional study finds
Corruption rife in Asian justice, regional study finds
Chris Foley, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
Corruption and political interference are rife throughout police and justice systems in Asia, according to a regional survey in which only four countries headed by Singapore are viewed favorably.
At the bottom of the heap is Indonesia where the "whole legal system is in desperate need of an overhaul," according to the survey of expatriates by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).
In attempting to define a stereotype, PERC said in its latest Asian Intelligence report that countries where the legal system has been graded most harshly "are either relatively poor or under communist control, or both".
Countries with roots in British Common Law ranked high with the exceptions of the Philippines and India, relatively poor countries "and this has provided fertile ground for bureaucracy and corruption".
Apart from Singapore and Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea which both borrow from British law were the only other countries given a pass mark by expatriates marking the legal system in countries where they work.
In a strong criticism of China, PERC said the reason many people in the public and private sectors are willing to risk quite draconian penalties for crime "is a good indication that they do not feel particularly threatened about being caught or prosecuted".
The judicial system in China was rated "unreliable, vulnerable to corruption and difficult to deal with", and the ultimate authority in the country was the Communist Party and not the law. The report said there was a misconception that China's entry to the World Trade Organization would somehow make its legal system compatible with WTO rules in the short term.
"It is not simply a matter of changing laws, however, but of training lawyers, judges and police and then making the systematic changes to remove the present system's idiosyncrasies. This will take years, if not decades."
India's legal system was said to have been seriously hurt by corruption brought on by low levels of pay for the judiciary and police.
Indonesia came in for the most scathing criticism with "corruption and political interference" undermining a legal system which has "little integrity".
"The bottom line is that Indonesia's whole legal system is in desperate need of an overhaul, but it is doubtful that the present government has the will or the ability to conduct such an exercise."
Of all the developing countries covered by the report, PERC said Malaysia arguably has the best legal system and had largely overcome questions about its independence raised during the trial of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
"Throughout this relatively controversial period, a lot of the debate over the integrity and independence of the legal system was carried out by lawyers and judges. This is therefore an example of the checks and balances that still exist in Malaysia."
The same could not be said of Thailand where the legal system had deteriorated to the point that only Indonesia was worse. "The failure of successive governments to raise the performance and ethics of the police force has become a national scandal," PERC said.
"The police are under-educated and underpaid. They are still a major engine of corruption."
The report noted that Thai police have fleets of expensive European cars for routine work but almost no forensic experts.
In the Philippines, police are involved in kidnappings and murders, and people feel so insecure that some areas are said to have set up their own militias.
With the survey rating countries on a scale of one to 10, Singapore was seen to have the best legal and police system with a rating of 1.7, followed by Hong Kong (2.9), Japan (3.67) and South Korea (4.83).
Of the countries which failed to reach the pass mark, Malaysia was rated at 6.29, then Taiwan (6.33), Vietnam (7.08), India (7.33), China and the Philippines (7.78), Thailand (7.96) and Indonesia (9.83).
The survey also took in the United States and Australia as a Western barometer, with the United States topping the poll at 1.67 and Australia placed third with 1.82, just behind Singapore.