Bribery and corruption: assessing the fairness of the Malaysian judicial system

This paper assesses the fairness of the Malaysian judicial system in handling cases pertaining to bribery and corruption. The assessment is based on an archival database of 1869 actual court cases that occurred between 2006 and 2013. The findings suggest that the Malaysian judicial system does not operate fairly. The punishment verdicts, in the form of fines and imprisonment, appear to be significantly influenced by offenders’ social, political, and personal characteristics. Specifically, the results reveal that white-collar workers, government employees, and indigenous Malaysians (Bumiputera) receive more lenient treatment from the judicial system than do other offenders. Males receive harsher sentences than females, and offenders in those states controlled by the ruling party receive softer treatment from the judicial system than those in opposition-controlled states. An unfair justice system erodes public confidence and enables prospective or existing offenders to exploit the system’s weaknesses for their personal gain . The contributions of this paper are as follows. First, unlike prior research which mostly draws upon public opinion surveys, this paper analyses real court cases. Second, it goes beyond the simple white-collar versus blue-collar distinction and considers offenders’ social, political and personal characteristics.