Corruption and Accountability of Public Officials: Comparative analysis from Malaysia and Indonesia

Corruption and accountability are challenging issues of public officials in Malaysia and Indonesia. This study compares approaches taken to control corruption and abuse of powers among public officials under Administrative Law. It comparatively examines the presidential and parliamentary systems and to study reported cases. Administrative Law approaches in both countries are analysed to determine its mechanism in this matter. The finding suggests a fusion of both approaches by an increasing use of codes and policy guidelines to enhance transparency and accountability. These will eventually promote good management and trust of the public towards the administration of both nations. Keywords: Corruption; accountability; public officials; good governance eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i15.248

Legal Literacy in Accessing Justice for Child Sexual Abuse

The sustainable development goals (SDG) set peace, justice, and strong institutions with targeted access to justice for all by 2030. Goal 16 of the SDG sets the number of reports made by victims of violence to the authorities to benchmark access to justice. The study argues that there is a correlation between legal literacy and reporting of crimes. Legal literacy means awareness of a society of the legal rights and obligations and their ability to use the legal avenue to get redress. The methodology of this study is by using content and doctrinal approach. Interviews are conducted with the legal aid and human rights representatives on the society and law enforcement awareness and understanding of the legal process in CSA cases. The study shows adequate law addressing access to justice in CSA cases. The Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and the Legal Aid (Amendment) Act 2017 enhanced the legal process to seek justice. However, inadequate legal literacy among the authority handling CSA is among the hindrance to justice. The absence of support from family members in lodging a police report is another issue found in the study. They were less likely to have the perceptual powers of the mind to report crimes. This study contributes to the literature on prioritising and improving access to justice in CSA

Technology Advancement Enabling the Link of Gut Microbiota with Obesity and Metabolic Disorder

Obesity is a growing epidemic due to an accelerated phase of industrialization and urbanization with the overfed people now outnumbered the underfed. It is the major public health problem with a lot of research interest as it is associated with many complicated chronic disorders such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancers. A global estimation of 2.8 million deaths per year is due to obesity and there are tremendous on-going efforts to identify hosts and environmental factors that infl uence the cause and pathogenesis of obesity. Concerted efforts from different research groups had successfully shown that obese subjects have altered composition of gut microbiota and transplantation of this microbiota infl uences body weight in the germ-free recipient mice. The advancement of technology had made possible the study of gut microbiota which was unculturable for better understanding of their impact to human health. Rapid deep sequencing of DNA at reasonable cost through various options of platforms followed by data analysis using robust bioinformatic tools are an important way of analysing the gut microbiome. Here we review the role of gut microbiota which modulates host’s metabolic functions and gene expression, facilitating the extraction and storage of energy from the ingested dietary substances and leading to body-weight gain. We will discuss on the different techniques used, focusing on the high-defi nition technologies for the determination of the composition, function and ecology of gut microbiota. This allows the appropriate selection of platform which becomes the key for success of subsequent research