Asia struggles against graft despite campaigns

Singapore: Fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is looking for an exile home to avoid a prison sentence for corruption.

An ex-Indonesian central bank chief has been sent to jail for five years on corruption charges.

Malaysia's ruling party is shaken to its foundations after voters lifted the opposition to unprecedented gains on a groundswell of revulsion over patronage and corruption.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo dodges impeachment over deals with China that were cancelled due to suspected graft.

For years, corruption has greased the wheels of commerce and politics in southeast Asia, a favoured destination for investors in emerging markets.

On Tuesday, government leaders across the region are on the defensive over corruption . Anti-graft campaigns have acquired momentum. Empowered anti-corruption bodies are cracking down. Invigorated judiciaries are prosecuting.

Companies looking at tempting but unfamiliar markets are also waking up to corruption risks to avoid costly penalties and to protect their brand names.

So have things really improved? Actually, not a whole lot, experts say.

Global corruption watchdog Transparency International has found little discernible change in southeast Asia in its 2008 table of perceived corruption.

Indonesia has significantly improved. Malaysia and the Philippines have slipped a few rungs. Thailand is more or less the same, while others such as Cambodia and Myanmar are at the bottom of the league tables.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, perhaps eyeing elections next year, has cranked up an anti-graft campaign in a country long viewed as among the most corrupt in the world. Not only was former Bank of Indonesia governor Burhanuddin Abdullah jailed for bribing members of parliament, a relative of the president by marriage was probed in the scandal.

The five-year-old Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission, has acquired something of a cult status in the world's fourth-most populous nation. Last month, it signed an agreement with the FBI for help with training and investigation.

Fauzi Ichsan, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank in Jakarta, said corruption is no longer one of the main barriers to foreign investment in Indonesia. "The government's anti-corruption campaign has been quite revolutionary," he said.

What concerns foreign investors most is not the run-of-the-mill bribes that must be paid to get a phone installed or a shipment through customs - some developed countries even allow companies to take tax deductions for these "facilitation payments" - but rather, institutionalised corruption.