MP SPEAKS United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day today can only be celebrated meaningfully in Malaysia by ending money politics through six integrity measures.

Malaysia performed dismally in the latest 2011 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), dropping four spots to No. 60 out of 183 countries this year from No. 56 out of 178 last year.

NONE Malaysia’s 2011 CPI dropped for the third year running, slipping to 4.3 this year, leaving it in 60th place out of 183 countries compared with 37th place when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as prime minister in 2003.

TI Malaysia deputy president Mohammad Ali even noted that Malaysia’s CPI has continued to decline as "elements of state” that facilitated “grand corruption” were still prevalent.

Such a damning indictment by TI explains Umno’s attacks against DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam during the Umno general assembly that was filled will lies, hatred and vulgar language.

No criticism is levelled at the expose by the 2010 Auditor-General Report of over-expenditure of RM3.7 billion by government departments.

No questions are raised about the RM250 million 'cows and condos scandal' where money is used to buy luxury condos instead of rearing cows, and money released two years even before the agreement was signed by both parties.

azlan Worse, TI’s survey of 1,000 respondents also found that the police and political parties were seen as the most corrupt institutions in the country, with most Malaysians believing that corruption levels would remain the same in the next three years.

DAP proposes six integrity measures to improve our anti-corruption rankings by first succeeding in ending money politics and combat corruption in the police:

Separate business from politics

One, there must be a ban on political parties’ involvement in business which can only lead to conflicts of interest.

How can politics mix with business as the former seeks to uphold public interests whereas the latter is to pursue private benefit and profit?

How wealthy political parties that are involved in business have become can be seen by MCA giving money to its members every year.

Open tenders now

Two, the ban on mixing politics with business must be followed by establishing an open tender system to check crony capitalism.

An open tender system ensures that unjust contracts such as the Independent Power Producers and the toll concession operators do not benefit the few with tens of billions of ringgit in extraordinary profits at the expense of the 27 million ordinary citizens.

The shocking losses in the RM5 billion Perwaja scandal, the Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal and the RM52 billion bumiputera shares scandal all add up to more than USD100 billion estimated that has been lost by Malaysians from corrupt or financial malpractices.

Freedom of information

Third, a right to non-confidential information must be protected under the Freedom of Information Act to ensure transparency.

Declare personal assets

Fourthly, there must be a declaration of personal assets by public officials holding positions of public trust.

Whither IPCMC?

Fifth, there must be full and unconditional implementation of the 125 recommendations proposed by the 2005 Royal Commission on the Enhancement of the Management and Operation of PDRM, especially the formation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

The IPCMC was intended to cut down abuses of police powers and police corruption.

Failure to set up the IPCMC only shows the unwillingness of the BN government to deal with the negative public perception about the police.

EC must act

Finally, the Elections Commission(EC) must be punished for failure to act or even failure to press for action from the relevant authorities on alleged acts of election bribery, especially failure to comply with the Election Offences Act 1954 imposing election spending limits of RM200,000 for every parliamentary constituency and RM100,000 for evey state constituency.

So blatant is this election spending limits rule violated that the Election Commission had admitted that RM110 million was spent on election posters alone in the 2004 general election.

With 219 parliamentary seats and 445 state seats contested in the 2004 general elections, the election spending limits is a maximum of RM88.3 million.

Clearly only BN can afford to spend RM110 million on election posters in the 2004 general election. And yet despite this astonishing self-revelation and admission by BN, no action was taken by the EC.

These six integrity measures can begin to cleanse Malaysia of corruption, cronyism and abuse of power.

A fundamental step to return power to the people is to punish those who undertake corrupt actions, reduce opportunities for corruption, implement a national integrity system through appropriate laws and institutions.

 

LIM GUAN ENG is DAP secretary-general and MP for Bagan as well as Penang chief minister.

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