PAS Youth has urged all state governments ruled by both BN and Pakatan Rakyat to emulate the Penang government’s move for its executive council members to declare their assets.

“PAS Youth sees asset declaration as a good and important step to prove that every state exco carries its duty with full accountability, responsibility, transparency, and show that they are working for the people and not for their own interests,” its publicity chief Riduan Mohd Nor said in a statement today.

selangor dap congress 2011 lim guan eng 2 Yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng ( left ) announced that the assets of state exco members - before Pakatan Rakyat took office on March 8, 2008, and now - would be declared on the Internet within one month.

Penang is the second state government to adopt such a policy, after Selangor.

However, other Pakatan-ruled states, Kedah and Kelantan, which has been under PAS since 1990, have shown no intention to follow suit.

Selangor pioneered the policy in March 2009, but the declarations were severely criticised by civil society as “farcical” and “laughable” because the asset information revealed was too little for any effective monitoring.

Riduan pointed out that many leaders in both federal and state governments have refused to declare their assets because their accumulated wealth were questionable and could amount to billions of ringgit, and beyond their means.

“Such leaders are being dishonest to the people because they take advantage of their power and influence to enrich themselves, either through business or corruption.

“Hence, PAS Youth calls on other state governments to see Penang government as their model and have every one of their exco members to declare their assets to ensure integrity and transparency in the administration,” he said.

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