Different faiths come together to fight corruption

The leaders of several communities have defined fraud as a mortal sin and have launched a joint campaign to eradicate the problem, prevalent in the country.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/SCMP) – The Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, is finding strong support from local religious leaders in the fight against widespread corruption in the country. In an unprecedented initiative, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh leaders unanimously defined corruption as a mortal sin. They have committed themselves to fighting the problem from the pulpit and to launching an awareness campaign in their communities. Their statements were made on 24 November, at the end of a two-day conference entitled The Role of Religion in Anti-Corruption Strategies.

"Our campaign will tell the people that it is a mortal sin to take or give bribes," Hindu leader K. Dhamaratnam said. "We need to instill the fear of God to eradicate corruption."

A government-conducted survey, published in 2004, revealed that corruption is extensive in the public and private sectors: the practice is so frequent that many Malaysians consider it a normal way of conducting business affairs. Recent university research showed how most undergraduates had no qualms about giving or receiving bribes.

According to Param Cumaraswamy, president of the Malaysian Society for Transparency and Integrity, "Employing religion to battle corruption is full of promise, because religious leaders have tremendous moral authority in our society.".

Foreign investors and the national Opposition accuse Premier Badawi of not doing enough to tackle the problem. On Wednesday last, 23 November, the government announced that it will offer protection to all whistle-blowers; the authorities hope that the provision will encourage more Malaysians to come forward to report cases of corruption to the police.

• malaysia
• religions
• corruption
• bribe
• society
• criminality