Mahathir slams corruption survey

Mahathir slams corruption survey

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad hit out at a European business watchdog yesterday for its assessment of global corruption, saying Malaysians who believed such groups were mired in a colonial mentality.

Mahathir dismissed a corruption index released by a German- based group, Transparency International, which ranked Malaysia 26th most corrupt country out of 50 states surveyed.

"We still have a colonial mentality," Mahathir told reporters, referring to Malaysia's spell under British rule which ended in 1957.

"I ask that in Malaysia, we set up a Europe Watch, with an index on racial discrimination, an index on corruption and an index on immorality," he said, and accused European countries of being far worse than Malaysia.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, however, warned the government not to ignore the survey and pointed out that the index deemed Malaysia more corrupt now than in the early 1980s.