Word: graftings
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...last forever. Abdullah will almost certainly win re-election in polls expected early next year, because of the well-oiled political machine of the governing National Front, which has dominated the country since independence. Yet the 68-year-old PM's tenure is dogged by the same ills - alleged graft, inefficiency, ethnic and religious rivalry - that he had promised to combat. Questions about Abdullah's leadership came to the fore earlier this year when his deputy, Najib Razak, stunned the country by defining Malaysia as an Islamic state, going so far as to say the country had never been secular...
...been particularly influential in investigating massive cost overruns in the building of a free-trade zone at Port Klang, not far from Kuala Lumpur. The latest official figures show that the project has ballooned to about $1.4 billion, more than double what was projected in 1999. Critics contend that graft has plagued the project, undercutting Abdullah's much-vaunted anticorruption drive. "Thus far, Abdullah's promises to curb corruption remain just that: promises," says Ramasamy Palanisamy, a former professor of politics at the National University of Malaysia. At the same time, the PM, who once earned plaudits for cutting back...
...corruption in China costs the economy about 3% of GDP, which was $2.7 trillion in 2006. While 3% may not seem like a huge amount, Pei notes that it is roughly equal to China's total annual education spending. There is a less tangible but more dangerous cost. Government graft "undercuts the legitimacy of the Communist Party," says Dali Yang, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. "Ruling élites, perceived by the population as irredeemably rapacious and self-serving, enjoy little popular legitimacy and would more likely get overthrown if a major [economic] crisis...
...course, China's top leaders are keenly aware of this possibility. In an Oct. 15 speech during the Chinese Communist Party's congress, President Hu Jintao declared that fighting graft is critical to "the party and its very survival." But previous clean-up efforts have had little effect. Of the 133,467 officials who were investigated for corruption between 2003 and 2006, just 427 were referred to the judiciary for criminal proceedings, according to Ouyang Song, deputy head of the Party Central Committee's Organization Department. Despite some signs of improvement, such as a growing reliance on investigators from distant...
...inherited her political mantle from her father Zulfikar--sent to the gallows by a previous military ruler--she has often been labeled a child of privilege, haughty and aloof from ordinary Pakistanis. Her two stints as Prime Minister were plagued with ineptitude and accusations--which she denied--of massive graft. Indeed, she fled Pakistan eight years ago to escape corruption charges and returned only after Musharraf agreed to drop them as part of their deal. Now she can claim the leadership of a popular uprising against a dictator--and potentially wipe clean her own record...