MP SPEAKS | Paul Low was sworn in for a second term as a senator on Monday, and he could therefore continue to be the minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the integrity and transparency of the government.

Under his watch since his appointment as a federal minister in 2013, Malaysia's integrity has gone from bad to worse, and this can be evident by the following two recent reports:

1. Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M), the NGO he helmed before he became a minister, announced in January that Malaysia has dropped 2 percentage points in the Global Corruption Perception Index among the list of 168 nations and Malaysia's ranking slipped from No. 50 in year 2014 to No. 54 in year 2015.

2. The London-based The Economist revealed this month that in a 2016 global survey, Malaysia was ranked No. 2 in the world for crony capitalism.

However, Paul Low has the gall to accept the extension of his second-term as a senator and to remain as a minister when his own NGO, TI-M, has given his government the thumbs down.

Does he have the cheek to declare his achievements as the 'integrity minister' and to let the rakyat decide whether the achievements justify his extension?

Prime Minister Najib Razak should drop Paul Low from the coming cabinet reshuffle because Low has failed to stop the deterioration of Malaysia's corruption index. Najib should also do away with the 'minister in charge of integrity and transparency' portfolio because its work is overlapping with the roles of MACC, the police and the Biro Pengaduan Awam under the PM's Department.

And it costs the taxpayers multi-millions of ringgit a year without bringing any convincing 'integrity and transparency' achievements to the country. The chart below shows one of the projects under Paul Low's ministry, the Institut Integrity Malaysia, has already spent more than RM11 million a year.

Paul Low should contest in the coming GE14 or in the upcoming two by-elections as a direct BN candidate if he thinks that he deserves the minister post. Perhaps he would rather keep the post through ‘back door’ senatorship because he knows that he would definitely lose as a BN candidate.

LIM LIP ENG is Segambut MP.