Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has pledged to tackle corruption during his tenure, but observers say it would take much more than rhetoric to convince the public that he means business.

Transparency International's (TI) Malaysian chapter president Tunku Abdul Aziz said that among the moves that Abdullah should be taking are those to increase independence of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and to hold politicians to greater account for their activities.

"Some of the institutions are there but mechanisms have to be put in place to ensure that they are backed by strong enforcement," he said when contacted.

He also said Abdullah would also have to show he has the commitment to address high-level corruption by changing the rules on the declaration of assets by members of Parliament.

"The declaration should not to made just to anyone but to an independent parliamentary committee which should perhaps be serviced by the ACA. The ACA should be given the independence to look into these cases," he said.

While Abdul Aziz said it was still early to tell whether the new premier is serious about combating corruption, he nevertheless set a time frame for Abdullah to prove himself.

"I would give him 100 days. The first 100 days are very important. There is no point abhorring corruption or saying how odious it is. We all know that. We would like to see evidence of political will, enforcement and non-interference by the executive," he said.

Room for improvement

The TI chief said one of the most effective way for Abdullah to keep focused on the task at hand would be for him not to be too preoccupied with staying in power for too long a period.

"If he can be happy serving up to six years, between the upcoming general election and the following one, then he can achieve a good deal. If he is focused on staying longer than that, then the political realities will set in and he would have to think about paybacks to his supporters."

TI had released a special report in September which found the country to be beset by a myriad of problems when it comes to dealing with corruption and abuse of power, including lack of political will, an unwilling legislature, weak enforcement of laws and absence of public outrage.

The body had attributed the situation to a lack of independence of agencies such as the ACA, the Auditor-General's office and the Public Complaints Bureau.

Malaysia is ranked 37 th in TI's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) this year, a fall of four notches from last year's 33 rd place ranking. However, the country improved on its CPI score from 4.9 last year to 5.2 this year (on a scale of between 1 and 10).

Finland has topped the CPI list for two years running, with a consistent score of 9.7 while neighbouring Singapore retained its position among the 10 least-corrupt countries this year with a score of 9.4.

According to Abdul Aziz, Malaysia may have done better in the CPI, but the improvement is only marginal, noting that "we should be doing a lot better".

Unhindered investigations

Senior lawyer and DAP deputy chairperson Karpal Singh said Abdullah should start taking action by looking into the assets of his cabinet ministers.

"Some of them may be living beyond their means as an MP. Abdullah should look into their asset declarations and investigate how they came about their wealth. If the ministers cannot account for their wealth then something has to be done about it," he said.

Karpal said the 'reforms' required of Abdullah need not necessarily be tangible ones such as the removal of the ACA from under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department.

He said Abdullah's true intentions can be conveyed through the amount of leeway he is prepared to give to these agencies to proceed unhindered in their investigations.

"The first ACA director-general (the late) Harun Hashim was quite effective but they soon got him out of the way by making him a judge. Basically, it is not the (supervising) ministry that matters but how much independence (the minister) is prepared to give these agencies," he added.

In the months leading up to the leadership transition, Abdullah had made several strong speeches critical of the level of corruption in the country, particularly in the civil service.

However, Abdullah who is also the home minister, has had to face several revealing assessments on the corruption problem plaguing his own ministry.

Last month, the Dewan Rakyat was told that the home ministry topped a list of 22 ministries in relation to malpractice , with 133 of its personnel being found guilty of corruption over the past four years.

In another survey conducted last year among local residents in Selayang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, the police were deemed as "highly corrupt" by more than half of the respondents.