MP SPEAKS | On Nov 19, 2017, 30 MPs, state assemblypersons and senior Pakatan Harapan leaders made statutory declarations giving details of their assets, income, expenses and liabilities.

For the first time in Malaysian history, a large number of senior politicians and public representatives came forward to sign a binding contract that not only required them to declare their assets under oath annually, but to consent to paying a hefty penalty of RM20 million in the event they betray the public trust, or do not perform to the minimum requirement of the service contract with rakyat.

The declarations and the service contracts they signed to defend reform principles can be accessed here.

The response has been mixed. Politicians and political parties were either silent or non-committal. The media and Transparency International (TI-M) celebrated it, based on the continuous media spotlight on the matter.

I was not surprised that the response was mixed. Asset declaration is a highly uncomfortable exercise for most people because even if they do not have anything to hide, it is largely an issue of privacy.

That is why I doubt political parties on both sides of the fence can ever come to an agreement in the near future to make asset declaration a compulsory requirement.

But the public expects public officials, especially elected people’s representatives, to declare assets annually, as a safeguard to ensure that they do not abuse their elected positions to amass wealth.

Those who argue that you only need to be a minister or exco member to declare assets should understand that a lot of corrupt politicians are lawmakers without a government position, but they have access to their party colleagues who do hold government positions. Therefore, they can exchange political support in return for government tenders and projects.

In the future, the public will look back with kinder perspectives that the first ever group public asset declaration was organised not by political parties, but by a citizen’s group, despite the reservations (if any) voiced out.

I will not make an apology that Invoke adopts a “carrot-and-stick” approach to compel our politicians to declare assets, because we do not live in an ideal world. What is important is that it is done.

And more will come after this every month. When more and more elected representatives and prospective candidates make asset declarations, the public can differentiate those who have from those who have not done so, regardless of their party.

In the end, more voters will vote for those who have declared, so much so that it will become a standard that voters attach a premium to politicians who declare their assets and sign an accompanying binding service contract.

The truth is – no matter how unconventional and uncomfortable it is to the current norm of society – Invoke had, quietly and without much fanfare, achieved a new milestone in the fight against corruption that no political party has been able to do.

Similarly, Invoke has – again, quietly and without much fanfare – played a vital role in repositioning the national opposition’s prospects in the next general election.

For the first time in our electoral history, opposition candidates standing in marginal seats across the country now command campaigning capability – in terms of content creation, micro-targeting, analytics, information dissemination and many others – that is comparable to BN’s, if not better.

The 103 mostly young and multiracial full-time staff of Invoke are quiet patriots. They were naïve enough then to believe that taking one or two years off from their careers would dislodge BN from Putrajaya. They came on-board without expectations, but full of vigour to do their part in rebuilding this nation.

They don’t talk politics – most don’t know how to explain politics even if their life depended on it – but they remain focused on their professional skills that they have to bring to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign, be it in statistics, using Ruby on Rails to code applications, or digital marketing and so on.

Love them or hate them, they have their hearts at the right place and they give hope to us. Deep inside, we know they have done their national duty. They have done more for society than most of us have in our lifetimes.

We are now nearing the conclusion to the #ProjekBuangNajib journey, which we launched, once again, quietly and without much fanfare, in August 2016.

I am confident that the national opposition will be able to defeat Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Yesterday, for the first time, analysts admitted that Pakatan Harapan is likely to retain Selangor, even in three-cornered fights against their earlier contention that Selangor would go to BN by default.

In the coming months, more and more political analysts – including cynics who previously preached to the world that Harapan would be wiped out in the event of three-cornered fights – will echo my assertion since early 2017 that Harapan’s chances have been improving significantly over time, and that it actually has a good chance to take over Putrajaya.

Invoke is supposed to conclude this month because we geared up for an anticipated November 2017 general election.

I doubt Najib can call GE14 earlier than April 2018, so now Invoke is running out of funds to maintain our quiet campaign on behalf of the 53 candidates we had been supporting. We need to be in operation until a new extended deadline, now estimated until the end of April 2018.

The Malaysian public has not let these 103 young Malaysians down so far. Even when we were about to close shop in April 2017, because I had exhausted all my life savings and could not afford to pump in any more money into Invoke, a public appeal by Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen started a viral crowdfunding effort by the public, which netted RM500,000 and lasted until July 2017, when another crowdfunding effort netted us a further RM2 million.

Invoke needs to raise RM5 million to conclude the #ProjekBuangNajib and send the 30 elected representatives and senior Harapan leaders who declared their assets statutorily on Nov 19 to Putrajaya.

Help us today to help millions of younger Malaysians who deserve a better country.

RAFIZI RAMLI is MP for Pandan and PKR vice-president.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.