Corruption is not a new phenomenon.

It is
an open secret that corruption exists in
every part of the world. Corruption not
only distorts economic decision-making, it
also deters investment, undermines
competitiveness and, ultimately, weakens
economic growth. The nature and effects
of corruption are unique to each country
and so is the way the world calls it. There
are many words associated with the
heinous act. People in the United Kingdom
call it “Sleaze”. It means immoral, sordid,
and corrupt behaviour or activities done by
civil servants. People in Italy call it
tangentopoli, referring to a political
corruption that happened in the 90’s.
Meanwhile, the French call it Les Affaires
which directly translates to forbidden
business. The Japanese nickname the word
corruption as kuroi kiri jiken or “Black
Mist” in accordance to a series of game
fixing scandals in Japan's Nippon
Professional Baseball (NPB) league
between 1969 and 1971. Another word that
the Japanese use are zowai, wairo or suwai
which means giving a sum of money to
someone to do something illegal or
forbidden.

As China is a very large country and its

people speak many different dialects of the
Chinese Language, there are three words
that correlates with the word corruption. In
southern part of China where the people
speak Hokkien, it is called Kopi Lui, a
Chinese term for 'coffee money'
meanwhile Mandarin speakers refers it as
Char Chien. Char Chien simply means
“tea money”. Both of it stands for giving
money with an expectation of receiving a
counter-favour or a bribe. In Mainland
China, it is called Than Wu. Than means
greed and Wu means dirty and it directly
translates as “dirty greed”.
People in Uganda refer to the dirty act of
corruption as “Air Supply”. It is a
figurative wordplay on making payment
for something that is not provided or
paying for a nonexistent service. In
Nigeria, it is called 419. Some Nigerian
refer it as the "Nigerian letter" and
"advance-fee fraud". The 419 fraud refers
to a section of the criminal code in Nigeria.
It refers to fax and email spam claiming
that recipients can receive money, often
millions of Dollars or Euros simply by
providing details of their bank accounts to
the criminals.

Our next door neighbour Indonesia refer it

as Pungli. Pungli is a creative wordplay
taken from the Malay word “Pungutan”
meaning to collect and Liar meaning
uncivilized or desolate. When the two
words are put together, it means
uncivilized collection made by
unauthorized people. And lastly, here in
Malaysia, there are many words that we
associate with corruption. Makan suap,
kawtim, and “under-counter money” are
among the many words that simply refers
to the dirty and heinous crime that is
corruption.