Corruption is a familiar term and phenomena for Pakistanis and we aren’t the only ones. Countries across Asia are plagued by this menace and some are even worse than us in this regard, according to the latest findings released by Transparency International.
Transparency International carried out an eighteen-month long survey and revealed that there is a long way to go before corruption and bribery is removed from these countries and Asia in general.
The survey included more than twenty thousand people from sixteen countries, regions, and territories in Asia Pacific and found out that at least one in four people have paid a bribe, specifically when having to use a public service at least once in their life.
The survey is for Asia as whole but country-specific statistics are worse than the above rate for some countries and go much higher than the average mentioned in the overall continent-wide result. This also reveals that for some people corruption and bribery is an everyday thing.
Here are the top 5 countries which rank the worst when it came to corruption levels:
Myanmar has a corruption rate of 40% according to the survey and although an Anti-Corruption Law was passed in 2013, about half the people who took the survey believe that almost the entire police force is corrupt and 40% believe the judiciary to be corrupt.
On the fourth number is Pakistan, with an overall corruption rate of 40%. Nearly three-fourths of the survey participants believing that the police is corrupt. 7 out of every 10 people who had had to deal with either the police or the courts had to bribe them.
Thailand is the third most corrupt country according to the survey, at a rate of 41%. The country has faced corruption charges at every level of the government with even government officials succumbing to bribes. This has led the Thai military junta to pass the Anti-Corruption Act of 2015 with enhanced penalties.
Vietnam is second to India in corruption level and the Vietnamese people believe that their government is doing almost nothing about this problem. Of the sixteen countries included in the survey, Vietnamese and Malaysians were found to be the most negative when it came to how the government is dealing with this serious issue.
At an astonishingly high 69% corruption rate, India is at the top of the list of the five most corrupt countries in the continent. More than half the participants reported that in as many as five of the six public services they have had to bribe officials.
However, with the recent government people have begun to feel optimistic about getting rid of the issue – 63% of people now believe that ordinary people can make a difference while 53% believe that recent government reforms are making an impact.
via Forbes