Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has called on the government to introduce a new regulation requiring all elected representatives to declare their assets and those of family members.

She said this should be the first step that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should take if he is to make good of his pledge to fight corruption.

"The annual declaration of asset has to be made to Parliament and should not exclude the prime minister, cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentary secretaries," she said in a press statement.

State elected representatives should similarly make their declarations to their respective state assemblies.

Public documents

Wan Azizah said the annual declarations should be made public documents accessible by the public.

"Keadilan feels that in this would allow public scrutiny of higher government officials and discourage them from using their positions to reap wealth through corrupt practices and power abuse," she said.

In its election manifesto, Keadilan had pledged to implement annual declaration of assets for all leaders, civil servants and top private sector executives. It had also promised to enact Freedom of Information legislation

The same suggestion had previously been made by Transparency International Malaysian chapter president Tunku Abdul Aziz and DAP deputy chairperson Karpal Singh in the first days of Abdullah's tenure as prime minister last year.