By Lim Guan Eng, MP for Bagan
DAP is not surprised at the Malaysian Corruption Barometer (MCB) 2014 findings that political parties have overtaken the police as institutions perceived to be the most corrupt in Malaysia. The Malaysian chapter of Transparency International had even described this as most “unusual”, unique only to Malaysia as political parties in other countries were not perceived to be as corrupt as here.
Of the 2,000 respondents surveyed, 45% of Malaysians perceive political parties to be the most corrupt, followed by the police (42%), public officials and civil servants (31%) and parliament and legislature (23%). In last year’s Global Corruption Barometer, 78% of Malaysians perceived the police to be the most corrupt followed by political parties at 69% in Malaysia .
Only 28 % believe that the government is effective in tackling corruption, the lowest in 5 years as compared to 31% last year. Clearly BN continues to turn a blind eye to corruption and even the appointment of Paul Low, a former president of TI-M, as Malaysia’s first so-called governance and transparency minister has not made any difference.
This is because Paul Low has refused to make any institutional changes to establish integrity and structural changes to combat corruption. Paul Low has rejected DAP’s call for renewal in fighting corruption by adopting these 6 steps of integrity:-
1. Instituting public declaration of assets of the Prime Minister, Ministers, Chief Minister and the EXCO
members vetted by an international accounting firm.
2. Implementing open competitive tenders.
3. Bar family members from involvement in government contracts.
4. Protect genuine whistle-blowers.
5. Remove leaders with extravagant lifestyles.
6. Come clean on political donations.
The latest constitutional crisis in Terengganu when 3 UMNO Assemblymen quit the party but returned within 24 hours causing UMNO to lose its majority at the Terengganu State Assembly have raised questions amongst Electoral Bersih and Datuk A. Kadir Jasin former group chief editor of The News Straits Times of underhand tactics and dirty politics. Datuk Kadir even predicted that the three Umno assemblymen turned independent candidates could change their minds if the “price is right”. Kadir Jasin’s “price is right” prediction turned out to be proven right.
No one believes that the 3 Terengganu UMNO Assemblymen quit because of unhappiness over the former Terengganu Menteri Besar daughter’s wedding, which the Prime Minister today even publicly promised that he would attend. It is such unprincipled UMNO politicians that leads the public to consider that trustworthy politicians don’t exist anymore. BN must be reminded that if they continue to trivialise the climate of fraud, bribery and corruption that is presently at a “rather dangerous” trend, Malaysia will not be able to eliminate poverty and remain stuck in the middle-income trap.
How serious corruption is in Malaysia can be seen when The Wall Street Journal and Transparency International have declared Malaysia as the world champion of corruption with RM1.2 trillion of illicit funds outflow over 10 years from 2002-2011, as well as no action against wrongdoings and excessive spending exposed in the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report involving RM6.5 billion. -The Rocket
