The statements being made by our ministers are getting to be unbelievable. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz was quoted as saying that the ACA will not be under the aegis of Parliament because it will not instil confidence among the people, in reply to a question by Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.

After mentioning that the government has full confidence in ACA, he argued that even Lim was against the ACA investigating expense claims by MPs, as though the latter was contradicting himself.

In fact, Nazri was contradicting himself. Whether the ACA should be under the purview of Parliament and whether the ACA should investigate expense claims by MPs are two different issues which are poles apart.

The argument for the ACA to be under Parliament instead of under Prime Minister's Department is because of the agency's lack of clout, independence, objectivity and transparency under the present situation.

The prime minister (and particularly one former prime minister) is believed to be the person who decides whether a case before the ACA should proceed, which gives rise to accusations of selective prosecution.

On the other hand, the ACA should not be involved in investigating expense claims of MPs because Parliament itself should have an adequate system of internal controls with the party in charge being capable of ensuring genuine claims.

Therefore the combining of these two separate and distinct issues by Nazri when replying to Lim clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding by the latter of what is going on.

After such illogical public statements by ministers, is it any wonder why we, the public, have such low opinions of the government?