My hobby is reading books and this book is in my books collection. I found that the content is interesting to do a review. This book was published by Akhbar and Associates in 2018. I bought this book at MPH Bookstore, Subang Parade for RM45 only about 25 weeks ago. The book tittle and the author’s name are already in the heading. This book is a compilation of statements, letters and articles published by Dato’ Akhbar Satar in Focus Malaysia, The Edge Financial Daily, The Malaysian Reserve, Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today, Malaysian Digest, The Malaysian Insight, The Sun, The New Straight Times, The Star and The Malay Mail in relation to corruption, crime and criminology between 2013 to 2018. Well, Dato’ Akhbar Satar is the President of Transparency International Malaysia (2013-2019) and the founder and President of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners- Malaysia Chapter since 2003. With more than 3 decades of investigative experience, he is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Forensic Polygraph Examiner and has held a Director position during his 18 years in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) and it’s predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency. In terms of academic, Akhbar has an MA in Criminal Justice Studies from the University of Detroit and is currently the Senior Fellow and the Director of the Institute of Crime & Criminology, established by HELP University Kuala Lumpur. He is also a full member of the American Polygraph Association, a member of the American Society of Criminology, a member of International Association of Crime Analysts, an Associate member of the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers and member of Malaysian Institute of Integrity.
The genre of the book is non–fiction. This book is perfect for anyone who want to know more about crimes and other social issues. So, it doesn’t mean that children can’t read this book. Whoever are seeking for knowledge about social issues can buy this book. This book was written based on current analysis and evaluation of corruption, crime and integrity in Malaysia. Main theme of the book is Bribery and Corruption. As a reader and a responsible citizen I definitely agree with the author’s point of view. Satar (2018) states “corruption lowers investment and retard economic growth, debases democracy to a significant extent and can destroy a nation” (p.2). This is one of my favorite statement written by the author in the book. Honestly, I couldn’t manage to follow the common thread; it takes literally 3 or 5 times for me to completely go in a flow with the content. As I’m reading, I found that the style of the author is very formal. Since this book provides insight into causes of crime, it’s criminals and victims such as delinquency, smuggling, drug, addiction, terrorism, human trafficking and the various punishments for the crime, this book absolutely doesn’t have any interesting characters or plots. This book is 100% based on reality and thoughts.
The concept of the bribery is well defined in this book. The book is fully in English and the words are very simple yet easy to understand. I can clearly see the chain in this book. The content are evolve from social issue, to government to public; the responsibilities of both parties and the perception of public towards politicians. This shows that the ideas are well developed from one chapter to another. As a common person who doesn’t have any political background or any in depth knowledge in social issues, I clearly can’t say what the author has covered and not covered. However, I was really astonished with the examples given and I searched in internet to confirm the accuracy. The facts in the book were too accurate. Sadly, there is no any summary in this book. The preface contain brief idea of this book. The book itself is a reference book, so it doesn’t have any footnotes. Then, each point was precise and clarified perfectly.
Apart from the content, the book has perfect binding. The color of the cover is dark blue and green with blocks. The tittle is in white color. The cover of the book doesn’t contain any pictures; it only contain title and the name of author. The first page contain a book mark, which is the extension of the cover page. The book mark contains information about the author and basic idea of this book. The index is accurate and it helped me to refer some important facts too. The author used primary sources such as surveys to write this book. From my opinion, this book is really the best and nothing is needed to improve. Because, this encouraged me to do more research on corruption and increased my awareness about my responsibility in voice out about crimes in a proper way. I will definitely recommend this book to anyone because this book is a good reference for anyone who are studying for criminology or any related course. Please find this book with the ISBN of the book :9789671408513 at https://www.mphonline.com/en/home
Hope you’ll love the content as I do. Thank you
MANSIGAUH 