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Title

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Introduction

What is bribery?

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Current news on bribery in Malaysia

2-3

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Economic analysis on the act of bribery

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3
Legal analysis on the act of bribery

6 -7

Ethical analysis on the act of bribery

8 - 10

Conclusion

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References

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Introduction

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Before I begin on the analysis of bribery through the economic, legal framework and ethical
perspective, I would like to enlighten you on what is ethics. The simple explanation of ethics is
that it is a form of moral principle which reflects on how people make their daily choices of
actions and lead their lives. Ethics covers of what is good for an individual and the society that
they live in. Ethics derived from the word "ethos" in Greek which means habit, character,
disposition or custom. The concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, cultures and
philosophies. They instill debates on topics like human rights, abortion, and professional
conduct, and including as what I am going to discuss in this paper, bribery. The end result of this
paper is to enlighten us on how bribery can affect our lives and economy. Below is a detailed
explanation of bribery.

What is Bribery?
My point of View
In these modern days, bribery is not something that we have not heard about. It happens almost
everywhere and anytime, be it at a coffee shop, on the streets, and do not be surprised, even in
the cinema. Yes, I type that right, in the cinema. Not many of us know that, certain act of giving
is also considered a bribe. For instance, giving your nephew or niece cash money for getting an A
in a subject in school. That is considering a bribe, as you give something, for something in
return. But, for me, it is a good one. As for bad bribes, it is an act of giving something (most
often money, or it can be any tangible or intangible things) so that you have something that does
not belong to you, or to get away with something, for example, bribing a police traffic so that
you could get away with the summons and like I mention above, in the cinema, I have seen
people paying the usher to get into the hall for a cheaper price. In this case, both parties get what
they want. Now, that is a bad bribe.
Lets move on to the more general explanations and meaning of bribery.
Via the Free Dictionary by Farlex:1
It defines bribery as an act of practice of offering, giving or taking a bribe. It explains several
used of words for different situations. These are the few that I find interesting;
1

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bribery

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Blood Money - It means there is a price on someone's head, literally saying. A reward will be
given to those who can successfully compound evidence or treachery that could and may result
in another's death.
Cross Palm - Is acts of placing bills across a persons hand as a bribe is carry out.
Grease the wheel - An act of giving bribe to ensure things to run smoothly. I think this is the
most common bribe in bad politics, don't you think so?
Have an ox on the tongue - is to pay someone to keep silence and to be in secrecy about certain
things. In short "to made mute by money"
Definition by wiseGEEK:
It mention here that in the 1300s, the word bribe is defined as something stolen, it is derived
from the French word briber, which means to beg. Make sense to me, as in our context now,
the briber would normally plead to be excuse for a certain act, by bribing the person who is
prosecuting him/her.
It also stated why bribery is viewed as a crime. Firstly, accepting a bribe and acting on it is a
clear mishandling of authority, and a delinquency sense of duty. Besides that, a bribe can
compromise the quality of transaction. The example given on this web: when a construction firm
bribes a government official to get an indenture, the government official may overlook a
company which provides better-quality or cheaper work, thereby in actual fact deceive the
government.2
Current news on bribery in Malaysia
In June 5, 2013, in Kuala Lumpur, a Petronas Carigali manager has been charged of taking
RM403, 000 as bribes, in which he spent it on buying and renovating his home. Idris M. Shuhud,
47, was alleging trial to five counts of bribery in his power as a senior manager from Penaga
Orbit and Genius Response Company Director Kamarudin Mohd Daud. The bribe was
prearranged as an enticement to endorse official Petronas documents, technical bids evaluation as

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bribe.htm

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well as service completion certificates for Kamarudins company.3 From my understanding, this
is a case example of the phrase Grease the wheel.
Other example I find attention-grabbing, is the one that happened in Kota Kinabalu, published on
June 3rd, 2013. A restaurant manager Riduan Masmus was charged with raping an underage girl
and then announced that he had married her in the middle of the rape case. He bribed the girls
father with RM5, 000 to withdraw the police report. This is an example of to make mute by
money.4
Economic analysis on the act of bribery
It is sad to know that the positive growth in international trade has a relatively negative increase
in bribery as a whole. Basically, the majority of economies are the diverse type, in which
demonstrate the recognizable feature of a free market system with certain level of public
ownership of resources and economic decision making. In this known system, the government
intercedes widely in the market and provides a substitute to market by which individuals and
firms are capable of winning the management over resources.
Therefore, an act of bribery in the economic sense can be commonly viewed as any act of
demeanor by public officials, whether explicitly or discreetly, that tiptoeing around or laid
down course of action perfected for either personal gains or objectives that divergence with those
of the state. It is a kind of state-agent problem which occurs in a state or country, as a result of
self-centered interest of the public officials who are the workforce of the government.5
Relationship between bribery and economic growth
Assume that:
C is for Corruption

C = M + D A S

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/36-local2/389832-petronas-carigali-managercharged-with-rm400000-bribery.html
4

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/man-charged-bribing-girls-dadwithdraw-rape-report-20130603
5

Yaru, Mohammad Aminu. (2009). Economic Perspective of Corruption in Public Sector: A

Theoretical Explanation and Lessons for Nigeria. Department of Economics, University of
Ilorin.

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M is for Monopoly
D is for Discretion
A is for Accountability
S is for Salary

From the equation, we can summarize that bribery is lower in high earning countries. With the
pervasiveness of high level of bribery, it can definitely subdue the economic growth. In this case,
bribery, at the same time can co-exist with the economic growth, but with the existence of
bribery in the scale, it prevents incomes for increasing. Therefore, since it is said that this
normally happens in a low income country, it is logic to say that, to reduce the frequency of
bribery, the earnings of a household should be increase. 6 But even that being said, relationship
among these two variables may not exist in certain countries, perhaps those of a higher and
stable marginal economic growth.
National and Economy Impact
Bribery can cause a few negative effects on our economy and nation, these includes:
a) Influence the efficiency and integrity of the administration of an organization or firms.
b) Affect negatively on social and political stability and security.
c) Development focus becomes unbalanced.
d) The increase in cost of goods and services when firms are becoming more self-centered.
e) Reduction in revenue as a whole in the economy.
f) Lowering the quality of work or products.
Bribe Payers Index by Transparency International7
6

Navin Elias. (2010). Relationship between bribery and Economic Growth- An Empirical
Analysis. Taken from http://www.slideshare.net/iamnapster1984/relationship-betweenbribery-and-economic-growth.
7

http://bpi.transparency.org/bpi2011/in_detail/

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Rank
1
1
3
4
4
6
6
8
8
10
11
11
13
14
15
15
15
15
19
19
19
22
23
23
25
26
27
28

Above is a list of ranking 28 of the worlds largest economies according to the probability of
firms from these countries to bribe at some stage in business overseas in 2011 (2012 BPI has not
been up on the web yet). Countries are scored on a range of 0-10, where a maximum score of 10
indicates that companies from that country never bribe overseas and a 0 indicates that they
always do. Scores that fall notably diminutive of a 10 designate a serious setback, signifying that
companies from these countries are probable to engage in foreign bribery so regularly that it is
recognized by the business decision-making whose opinion constitute the 2011 Bribe Payers
Index. As you can see, Malaysia was given a score of 7.6, which generally means that the
significance of bribery in Malaysia in business abroad is up most conspicuous. Further report can
be found on http://bpi.transparency.org/bpi2011/in_detail/

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What to expect with the existence of bribery in the economy

We must bear in mind that each and every country or states necessitate to be evaluated on its own
idiosyncrasies for trading and investment purposes. We should expect that in a certain period of a
general business persons life, they may stumble upon low down levels bribery in high income
countries.
Therefore, in devising stratagems for economic growth, policy makers must modify them to the
explicit economic and social state of affairs of the particular country. Even if bribery is
eliminated, it may not be sufficient to encourage in elevating the levels of the economic growth if
other obstructions to trade and investment are not being eradicated.
For that reasons, speedy economic growth should not slow down the powers that be from being
on the lookout for to keep bribery under control.
Legal Analysis of the act of bribery
There are a few law and legal definition of bribery that I came across on the web; one of which
would be bribery in criminal law represent the unacceptable receiving by a public officer, juror,
or someone bound by a responsibility to act without bias, of any gain or benefit to the recipient,
as well as any gain or benefit to a third person by the need or sanction of the recipient. A gain or
benefit may be a financial advantage in the form of property, money, marketable interests or
anything else the prime significance of which is monetary gain. Operating expense related with
social occurrence given to public servants and party officers are not generally measured as a
financial benefit contained by the meaning of this explanation.
Basically, the crime of bribery is committed when:
1. An Individual tender, present or see eye to eye to award whatever thing of worth upon a
public servant with the intention that the public servant's judgment, opinion, exercise of
discretion, vote, or other action in his/her authorized power will in this manner be
corruptly prejudiced; or
2. Despite the fact that a public servant, he/she plead for, acknowledge or agrees to allow
any financial benefit upon a contract or accepting that his/her judgment, opinion, exercise

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of discretion, vote, or other action in his/her authorized power will in this manner be also
corruptly prejudiced;
It is not a defense to a hearing that the person sought after is to be predisposed was not eligible to
take action in the desired way, whether because he/she had not yet assumed office or lacked in
authority.8
Law of Malaysia Section 13, Act 575 of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997 9 states that a person shall
be guilty of an offence when a person: (Quoted directly from the act)
a) Who, with intent to obtain from any public body a contract for performing any work,
providing any service, doing anything, or supplying any article, material or substance,
offers any gratification to any person who has made a tender for the contract, as an
inducement or a reward for his withdrawing the tender; or
b) Who solicits or accepts any gratification as an inducement or a reward for his
withdrawing a tender made by him for such contract.

Social repercussions after convicted

A bribery conviction weighs up serious consequences which can include serving time in jail,
being in probation, and extensive fines. It is also capable of resulting in the stoppage of your
professional certification, your profession, and your social repute.

Ethical Analysis on the act of bribery

There are four ethical theories chosen in this section of analysis on the act of bribery. First of all,
eternal law, is also known as the Natural law, where according to religious beliefs, it comes
unswervingly from the will of God. It is not dependant on the control of man, and therefore it
cannot be alter. But, human insights towards eternal law may change in time through new
exposure.10
8

www.definitions.uslegal.com

Law of Malaysia. Act 575 Anti Corruption Act 1997. Taken from
http://politikus.xparte.com/aca1997.pdf
10

Model notes. OUMM3203SMP Etika Profesional.

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According to Aquinas, "Whatever is a means of preserving human life and of warding off its
obstacles belongs to natural law"; in another sense, a good rationalization for an ethical or
lawful regulation is that it uphold the upkeep of human life. This means, all living life form
would naturally have the tendency to think best for survival.11
Relating this to the act of bribery, we as a human being, know that taking or giving bribe is an ill
act if it involves peoples destruction, repute or life or taking something that does not belong into
our own hands. As Eternal law state that it is the will of God, it does not encourage us human
to take something by force or to cause any life threatening cases, for that reason, it is forbidden
to bribe in the Ethical Theory of Eternal Law as it is obviously, not what God covet.
Second theory would be the Classical Teleological Ethical Theory: Utilitarianism. It is
basically the theory of good where the only thing that is defines as well is happiness or
somewhat pleasure. It is also a theory of right in which it is means to do something we should
do, and know that it is right and good, for our own expense and for others. It is a theory of how
to act in pursuing your greatest net happiness. The actual relevance of an act is determined by
what actually happens and is fundamentally future oriented, as in doing something what is right
now, then to see the results in the future. This theory is based on the net benefits to society and
thus, each individual within a society has to be considered and taken account for.12
But the word right in this theory is questionable and I finally understand why this theory
failed, this is due to the fact that when I relate it to bribery, despite the great perceptible net
benefits for a huge majority, the act of bribery is something that is not right. For example: A
police officer is bribed in order to keep his mouth shut about the killing of an innocent child, who
they believed to be cursed and just for the benefit of bringing happiness and to cover shame for
the whole colony of a certain race just based on their narrow minded views. This is without a
doubt an intolerable and an inhuman act.
Now, moving on to the third ethical theory, which is the Classical Deontological Ethical
Theory: Universalism. Deontology in the Greek word means the acting of duties or obligations
of an individual. Such are actions that are prohibited includes forbidding the killing of innocent
11

Thomas Aquinas. (1225-1274). Aquinas of Law. Philosophy and Theology in Thomas

Thought. Taken from http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/302/aquinlaw.htm
12

Center for the study of Ethics in the professions. Utilitarianism. Taken from
http://ethics.iit.edu/teaching/utilitarianism

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people and prohibition on lying and promise breaking. Deontology preserve that the unfairness
of certain actions is essential, or dwell in the manner of action that it is, rather than the end result
it brings about. So, for example, an act of bribing an official at a National Competition is wrong
because by doing such bias actions and letting an individual who do not deserve to win is wrong
because it is taking someones right to win away, rather than because it dispossess someone of
their future glories and undertakings and causes grieves to the person whose rights were ripped
out of him. This shows that the moral rightness of an action in this theory is in terms of the
consequences it brings about.13
It is safe to say that, at least that of the Judao-Christian religious tradition is deontological in
nature. The Ten Commandments, for instance, comprise a set of deontological restrictions on
certain deeds. The major predicament for deontology is to put in plain words just why people are
banned from certain types of actions even when we know, if we refuse to comply with the law, it
will bring about much superior consequences.
Last but not least, the fourth theory would be Distributive Justice Theory. This theory was
designed by John Rawls and it is unambiguously based upon the predominance of a single
significance, which is Justice. John Rawls suggest that society and the institutions within it are
distinct by these two fundamentals:
A) Collaboration
Collaboration comes about since individuals recognize that joint actions generate much
greater benefits than solitary efforts.
B) Conflict
Conflict is foreseeable because people are anxious with the just allocation of gained
profit. Each person favors a greater to a lesser share, as well as an arrangement of
allocation that ensures the greater share for himself. These allocation arrangements can
have very dissimilar basis to each person uniformly, or to each according to his needs,
effort, contribution or competence.

13

Deontological ethics. New world Encyclopedia. Taken from

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Deontological_ethics

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For instance, (taken from the notes provided in the student LMS) public education is,
theoretically speaking, distributed equally, welfare payments on the basis of need, sales
commissions on effort, public honors on contribution, and managerial salaries on competence.
People would not usually choose total equality in the allocation of benefits. This is since they are
aware of that some of them would put forth better endeavor, have advanced capabilities and so
on. When we relate it to bribery, it is plain to see that this theory unquestionably prohibits the act
of bribery since it is prejudice and unfair to the rest of the society and we know that this theory is
all about justice for those who put much effort in their work.
But this theory fails because they would also not concur to total discrimination based upon
endeavor, ability or capability because they would not be familiar with who amongst them have
those qualities and who amongst them ought to receive more or less benefits. Instead, they would
develop a concept of conditional inequality, where differences in benefits have to be justified.
And again, like karma, those who are treated inequality would be the ones who have the higher
tendency of being bribe.14

Conclusion
As of the analysis above, it is commonsensical to conclude that, in all cases where the personal
costs of bribe is less that or equivalent to its personal gains, the tendency to bribe triumph and
each sane public official or individuals will be entice to be corrupt because he/she is guaranteed
of an interests gain or at least faces no threat of loss of interests.
In all cases, when all of us are sentient that we can bribe not as much of the income gain from
bribery to manipulate or steer clear of enforcement of anti-corruption laws on us or avoid
consequences or any form of punishment, which would only mean that the anti-corruption
agency is corrupt too, hence, the increment of bribery would be volatile. This would only mean
that the control of bribery would become very difficult and intricate.
14

Model notes. OUMM3203SMP Etika Profesional.

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As we have learned through the explanation of the ethical theories mentioned above, being bribe,
or taking bribe is an action which is dishonorable and can cause failure in our economy, social
welfare as well as overthrowing the faith of our very own nations legal standards if the
authorities responsible to overcome this matter fails terribly.
Nonetheless, the right and wrong doing of an individual depends on the individuals perception
towards moral. Some may find it being an okay act of bribing if it does not come down to
hurting people or defame others, but what they do not know, the effects it can cause to his or her
own morality. It will slowly turns into habit, and thus, may turn into an obsession which he or
she may not be able to control in the future as he/she concede defeat towards his/her own selfcentered mind. This will lead to self-destruction.
Therefore as an individual, we must strengthen our faith and identity to combat bribery and
corruption. When everyone learns to see bribery as something nuisance and could only bring
forth destruction to our individuality, moral principles, and the growth of our country, corruption
can be easily solved. I believe that faith; strength and resilience can help ward off the evil of
bribery, like what this subject paper is all about, being rich with etiquette is a way one must live.

()

Reference
Yaru, Mohammad Aminu. (2009). Economic Perspective of Corruption in Public Sector: A
Theoretical Explanation and Lessons for Nigeria. Department of Economics, University of
Ilorin..
Model notes. OUMM3203SMP Etika Profesional.

Internet References:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bribe.htm
http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/36-local2/389832-petronas-carigali-manager-chargedwith-rm400000-bribery.html

12 | P a g e

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/man-charged-bribing-girls-dadwithdraw-rape-report-20130603
Navin Elias. (2010). Relationship between bribery and Economic Growth- An Empirical
Analysis. Taken from http://www.slideshare.net/iamnapster1984/relationship-between-briberyand-economic-growth.
www.definitions.uslegal.com
http://bpi.transparency.org
Law of Malaysia. Act 575 Anti Corruption Act 1997. Taken from
http://politikus.xparte.com/aca1997.pdf
Thomas Aquinas. (1225-1274). Aquinas of Law. Philosophy and Theology in Thomas Thought.
Taken from http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/302/aquinlaw.htm
Center for the study of Ethics in the professions. Utilitarianism. Taken from
http://ethics.iit.edu/teaching/utilitarianism
Deontological ethics. New world Encyclopedia. Taken from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Deontological_ethics