Survey: Bribery a way of life here

PETALING JAYA:(The Star) Bribery is such a long-standing problem that most Malaysians acknowledge and accept it as part of life.
Lecturer P. Thinavan, 47, suggested that everyone dwelt less on statistics and focused on tackling the problem.
“It is rampant, but corruption only happens if the public partakes in it. After all, it takes two hands to clap.
“Take traffic offences for example. Offenders should follow the rules and pay for their wrongdoings. They are not in a position to bargain, but they offer to settle the matter with the traffic officer,” he said.
Thinavan was commenting on Malaysia Transparency’s Perception Survey 2007 which found that problems of integrity and transparency were “acute and serious.”
Another lecturer from a local university, Sharon Wilson, disagreed with the notion that every government agency was corrupt.
“We can’t stereotype by saying that everyone bribes or receives bribes.
"There might be a lot of cases of people offering bribes to get their driving licence, or situations where people, frustrated by bureaucracy, pay duit kopi.
“For me, it’s a matter of addiction and a bad habit more than an act of desperation,” she added.
Centre for Independent Journalism executive director Sonia Randhawa noted:
“If people have this perception that corruption is serious, it’s possible that they may be practising it as well.”
Asked how corruption may be reduced, she said government policies should not concentrate too much on individual responsibility but tackle the problem on a wider scope.
The survey was conducted from Nov 30 to Jan 12 and polled 1,436 respondents from both public and corporate sectors.
The results were released on Monday.

tunku: i agree with this, bribery has became the way of life in malaysia, especially in the government sector.Government have to really deal with it although 100% success will never be achieved, if we can achieve 80% it's good enough for us.try dealing with any government agencies, there is element of bribe.we said that it takes two hands to clap but sometimes only one hand and it's slapping on our face that we need to give another hand to stop it and start clapping.the red tape and bureaucracy is a very big thorn in government which is promoting more bribes. for an instance to approve certain plan, if no bribe given it may take 6 months to approve but with bribe only a month.this is a norm here. with money people can speed up work. as a business man time is money, no choice but to give "duit kopi" to speed up the work.Government should set a standard procedure at every level, set the time frame for all the application, this approval need 14days,that approval 20days,reject application will be notify within 2 weeks.this would help to REDUCE bribe.the procurement department is another big bribe centre. Other big thing is that government staff especially the enforcements get better pay.