It is not the average struggling Malaysian taxpayer who is stealing the national wealth, says Wandering Malaysian.
A staggering total of US$395bn was siphoned out of Malaysia in illicit financial flows in 2003-2012.
Malaysia has the ignominy of being the top fifth country globally for illicit financial outflows (India nudged Malaysia from 4th to 5th place in 2014). According to the Global Financial Integrity report, Malaysia alone contributes to 6 per cent of the total global illicit flows from all developing countries.
Put another way, for every US$1 of foreign direct investment that Malaysia received in 2012, US$5 was being smuggled out of the country. This is only a conservative estimate as the methodology to estimate the outflows is very rigorous based on reported balance of payments and trade statistics. (Global Financial Integrity has the details.)
Close to 20 per cent of Malaysia’s GDP is being stolen and spirited away overseas and kept in safe havens as either cash or invested in assets. While the volumes have been declining since 2010, the question is how can such plunder on a national – nay, international – scale, mostly through deliberate trade misinvoicing, escape the notice of Bank Negara, the Royal Malaysian Customs and the Royal Malaysian Police.
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Let us look at another recent revelation through secret Swiss banking files of 30,000 accounts that were leaked last week (the Swiss Leaks). Malaysia is ranked 87th among the countries with the largest dollar amounts stashed away with one notable Malaysian who has squirreled away US$68m. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has named a member of the Pahang royal family. Unfortunately, the ICIJ site does not allow access to country level data which will reveal who the other Malaysian luminaries are who prefer to keep their money in secret accounts in Switzerland rather than in Malaysia.
Given that the top 10 per cent own 40 per cent of the total wealth of Malaysia, we can safely assume that it is not the average struggling Malaysian taxpayer who is stealing the national wealth.
So, which Malaysia-based individuals and firms are well positioned to carry out trade invoice shenanigans? How many of these are either proxies or linked in some form to political parties and networks? How many current or former Malaysian political leaders have interests in these businesses?
How can such a huge amount of money leave Malaysia without the tacit complicity of the authorities?
Source: wanderingmalaysian.blogspot.com
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It is often quoted that Malaysia ranks fifth globally for illicit financial outflows. However, the population size should be very relevant in such rankings. Taking Malaysia’s relatively small population into account, it must rank close to first place if ranked on a per capita basis. This is how serious corruption is in present-day Malaysia.
who is this member of the Pahang royal family. Would it be an offence to name him/her?
I m sure foreign workers don’t have swiss bank accounts.
this article truly blew my mind… and as we know, we Malaysians have mild cardiac arrest just about ever other day over what constitutes public discourse.
Thank you for featuring it.
If you have the evidence, do show them to the public or Sarawak report or difficult to convince and considered gossip
Foreign workers outflow of money not lodged in Swiss Banks, it goes back to their countries of origin
I t is all about mutual benefits among crooks, both in govt n pte sector.
Has the analyst taken into account the 3 million foreign workers in Malaysia sending back money to their own countries through unofficial channels?