It is useful to remember the adage that 'A fish rots from the head down'. For a country to be first-class, its political leadership must display unambiguous qualities of diligence, efficiency and integrity and our parliamentarians must set the tone for this.
The parliamentarian has two basic duties - legislative and representative, and there must be clear and unequivocal guidelines for these. Since we follow the royalist parliamentary system of the UK we should study their progress carefully and have in place something like their detailed document called 'The Code of Conduct' together with 'The Guide to the Rules Relating to the Conduct of Members'. These state clearly the 'do's' and 'dont's' both at the parliamentary and constituency levels.
While the parliamentarian has a duty to represent his constituency, the provisions relating to 'conflict of interests' are made clear. The MP should not promote his profession, trade, company, relatives nor receive payments then or in the future.
I believe MPs certainly should have excellent service centres but these should give only guidance and advice, not become agents or lobbyists or vendors of vested interests to 'fix' things. MPs should focus on policies and systems and raise issues in parliament when issues affecting their constituencies are not being addressed or when a department or ministry is failing them. They should focus on systemic failures, not on doing favours or 'fixing' things for gain, directly or indirectly.
If people make going through MPs or state assemblymen a routine matter, it will sadly become a culture and other ordinary citizens will get sidelined. The civil servant should give first-class service to the public so it will be unnecessary to exploit MPs or assemblymen. The fact that you have to resort to MPs and assemblymen to get holes in the road repaired or obtain forgiveness for late payments or delays is a sign of a generic sickness in our governance system.
It is also important that we have civil servants who are excellent, efficient, objective, caring and honest. They should display respect, fairness and courtesy to all and not just to MPs or assemblymen. And they must be brave and resolute. Such persons should be supported by the leadership unequivocally and they should never feel intimidated or let down. People who threaten them or suggest anything that smacks of corruption should be dealt with seriously. If there is no political will for that from the top, like fish, we will rot as a nation.
We have raised great hopes of the people recently with the National Integrity Plan but there is deep worry that corruption is so endemic that without 'zero tolerance' and action from the top, we will end with a great credibility gap and continue to pay a heavy price in our quest towards good governance.
A good Code of Conduct for MPs and assemblymen should certainly join the critical need for three other things - an independent Anti-Corruption Agency, a Freedom of Information Act and a Whistleblowers Protection Act. All these should be actively pursued in Parliament by all parliamentarians with a conscience who have the public's interest at heart.
The writer is director of Citizens International and co-founder of Transparency International Malaysia.