Taking a serious view of money politics in Umno, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) has urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to immediately act on alleged money distribution at ‘special’ programmes organised for the three incumbent vice-presidents.

Just a day before the party’s major polls, the corruption watchdog argued in a long letter that MACC has to nip the  problem in the bud before it grows into “scandals involving huge sums of money and abuses of government machinery for the individual’s political survival”.

“In the lead-up to the coming Umno polls, TI-M has received numerous feedback that a lot of money is being distributed this year to buy votes,” TI-M president Akhbar Satar said in a statement.

“What we understand is that with 146,000 voters in total, there is a lot of cash involved, and distributed at ‘special’ programmes organised for the three vice-president incumbents, who are holding senior ministerial posts.”

His statement echoed Governance and Integrity Minister Paul Low who also last month urged all political party members to shun any offer of cash inducements to affect the outcome of the elections and report all wrongdoings to the MACC. Low is the ex-president of TI-M.

NONEMACC’s chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed (right) has been coy about the subject. He recently told the mainstream media that no reports of money politics have been made since Umno has reformed its electoral process, which contradicted complaints from grassroot Umno divisions that such practices still exist.

“TI-M wants to know what the MACC is doing about the issue of money politics,” Akhbar said.

“Even if Umno (or any other political organisation) considers it as an internal party issue, MACC should ask whether the source of the money being distributed commensurates with the financial standing of the individual candidates, and if it is money donated to the party or division, whether it is being paid in return for a business favour.”

In response to TI-M’s statement, the MACC quickly said that it was prepared to investigate Umno wrongdoings, on one condition.

“Our stand is that all accusations about the party elections should first be passed through Umno’s own disciplinary board. If the board finds the accusations are valid and have evidence that bribery is involved, then it can be referred to us for lawful actions,” MACC said in a statement.

‘Voice of the conscience of the people’

Meanwhile, TI-M also puzzled over recent government backing for seemingly illogical projects by the government, including the 48.69km Malacca-Dumai bridge, to be built across the world’s busiest shipping lane.

NONELabelling itself as “the voice of the conscience of the people”, TI-M said it also wants MACC to start probing this mega project, recently revived by Malacca’s Chief Minister Idris Haron.

“The question is, are some of these mega projects viable, or are they just payback to those who help funded the ‘cash-for-votes’, “ Akbar said, adding that “corruption is like cancer, therefore, prevention is better than cure”.

Akhbar also emphasised that there was no corruption too small to be tackled.

Minister Paul Low had announced that the cabinet has approved the setting-up of a team to monitor projects valued at more than RM500 million.

“Why cap at RM500 million when the roof of the RM292 million Sultan Mizan Zainak Abidin Stadium collapsed for the second time?” Akhbar said.