Talking about corruption

Transparency International Index released its 12^th annual corruption perception and Cambodia was ranked 151 of 163 countries. At the mean time, Mr. Sek Borisoth, anti-corruption director of Pact-Cambodia, which is the international organization that used to offer sub-grant to local-organization to operate anti-corruption activities in Cambodia, shared his own opinion related anti-corruption issues, I now quoted his opinion “Now, at Least Corruption Is Talked About” released on the Cambodia daily on November 22, 2006:

The immediate, likely reaction to this is that corruption is getting worse. However, a careful analysis of the index may reveal something different, and even positive in terms of how corruption is dealt with.

The index may be based on reported cases of corruption available to Transparency International. If this is the case, the ranking should not be a surprise, as every body knows that until two years ago, nobody would even talk about corruption openly, and it was hard to get information on corruption cases. But during the last two years, corruption has become a major public focus.

It should also be noted that the index is based on people’s perceptions of corruption. The ranking could be based on the fact that many people now feel either safer or encouraged to talk about corruption and have had more access to reports about corruption.

These factors probably explain why Cambodian is further down the index and suggest that corruption is better addressed now than in previous years.

As we knew, the corruption is the hot issue that not only Cambodians but also international community wants to eliminate corruption. Until now, draft corruption law has not yet to be passed by National Assembly.