Abu Kassim said the MACC chalked up a conviction rate of 85 per cent or 5 per cent more than the international benchmark for good performance. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Malaysia has surpassed Hong Kong in its fight against graft based on its higher conviction rate in corruption-related arrests, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed said today.

He said out of 701 arrests made for 2012, his agency chalked up a conviction rate of 85 per cent or 5 per cent more than the international benchmark for good performance.

Hong Kong, known for its stellar fight against corruption, has a much lower rate, Abu Kassim said although no numbers were given. The MACC was modeled after the island state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

“We can be proud of the rate. We have done better if you want to compare it..to Hong Kong,” he said in a press conference held after submitting the 2012 MACC report to Parliament here.

He added that under the conviction rate, Malaysia's performance was also comparatively better than a few other nations, including Singapore and Indonesia.

According to the MACC 2012 report, the commission increased its conviction rate from 54 per cent in 2009, to 75 per cent to 2010 and 2011.

The total sum of fines issued vis-a-vis the arrests was RM14.5 million, while of the 401 cases tried in the lower courts, 85 per cent resulted in favour of the prosecution. In the High Courts, MACC's prosecution team won 59 per cent of the cases tried.

Abu Kassim also said the MACC had succeeded in combating graft in the government as a higher percentage of those convicted were not civil servants.

Despite repeated denials and boasting of its high conviction rates on graft-related cases, the MACC is seen by rights groups and the opposition as being ineffective in fighting graft, particularly since it has allegedly failed to net the politically-linked "big fishes".

Abu Kassim has denied the allegation described claims that the MACC does not go after high-level graft suspects and allegedly only investigates small-time offenders as attempts to “pull down” the commission.

Charges against former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohamed Khir Toyo, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) and the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandals, he added, were proof of the MACC's independence.

Khir Toyo was convicted by the Shah Alam High Court in 2011 for abusing his powers to purchase a luxury property, but his one-year jail term has been suspended pending his appeal at the Federal Court. He failed to overturn his conviction for graft at the Court of Appeal this May 30, and filed his appeal at the apex court a day later.

Six individuals have been charged over the PKFZ scandal since December 2009, with former transport minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik’s cheating trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in its final stages, while his successor Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy’s cheating trial is set to begin on August 19.

The NFC case, which involved a RM250 million soft loan for cattle farming, has seen National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail being slapped with two charges of criminal breach of trust for the partial finance of two units of condominiums.

In July, Transparency International-Malaysia president Akhbar Satar suggested that the government’s failure to prosecute “big fish” in high-profile cases had contributed to the decline in the people’s confidence in Putrajaya’s anti-graft fight.

“Maybe, lately, there have been big cases that have been investigated but those involved were not charged,” he was quoted saying by news portal Malaysiakini on July 9.

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer results for 2013 said less than one in three Malaysian respondents felt the government was successfully combating graft, down from 48 per cent in the same survey in 2011.