No evidence asset declaration a safety risk for politicians - speaker

• Updated with MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya's comment
  

No concrete evidence shows that asset declaration will increase the risk to the safety of Members of Parliament, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said last night.

Responding to Edmund Santhara's worry about his family members and his own safety, Ariff stressed that asset declaration is an essential practice to hold politicians accountable.

"With all due respect YB Santhara (PKR, Segamat), there is no concrete evidence, no matter here in Malaysia or anywhere else.

"That is about transparency and keeping away from corruption. If you see someone who is earning a certain amount of ringgit, but suddenly becomes very, very rich when he is an MP, there must be justification for it."

Mohamad Ariff was speaking to reporters at the ‘Dinner with Chairpersons of the Parliamentary Special Select Committees and Media: Reform and The Way Forward for the Parliament of Malaysia 2020’ at the Parliament Complex last night.

He said MACC does not publish every detail of assets declared by the MPs, but just the total amount.

During an interview with Malaysiakini two days ago, Santhara attributed his safety concern to the asset declaration practice pushed by the Pakatan Harapan. He was labelled the richest MP, with assets totalling RM132.83 million as of March.

Despite these difficulties and harassment, Santhara insisted that the asset declaration practice must continue, but with some modification.

He suggested that the lawmakers continue to declare all their assets to the government and MACC, but only part of the information - the incremental asset from the day they are elected - should be made public.

Under declaring of assets: MACC can only act on complaint

Meanwhile, MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya (below) said they have yet to receive any complaints on MPs under-declaring their wealth.

She said the concept of assets declaration is about transparency, and while the declaration can help MACC when it carries out an investigation, such probes can only be launched when there is a complaint.

"You must understand the concept of assets declaration is not for us to investigate.

"But if someone looks at the declaration by an MP, and finds the declaration does not match the MP's lifestyle, (the person can say) something is fishy and would like to have an investigation.

"We don't say that you need to give us (MACC) proof or something, but there must be a complaint (first)," she told reporters after officiating a forum on unmasking beneficial ownership organised by Transparency International Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Latheefa was responding to a question on possible under-declaration by a certain minister during the recent assets declaration exercises imposed by the cabinet and the Dewan Rakyat on all MPs.

It was reported that minister Mohammadin Ketapi, who is in charge of the tourism portfolio, declared he had only amassed RM9,338 in the 11 months since Dec last year, and this included his wife’s assets.

This was based on a declaration Mohammadin made in September, as published on the MACC asset declaration website.

According to Latheefa, under-declaring asset is an offence and punishable by the law.

She said the country, however, is yet to reach a stage of having a law on over-wealth, which addresses the disproportion between the wealth of an individual with his or her earnings.

"We haven’t treated over-wealth as an offence yet.

"So we are actually at a very basic level of talking about assets declaration. But a natural process to that is the concept of wealth that doesn't match one's income.

"That has been introduced in India, Hong Kong and other places.

"We hope this will be the next step (for us)," she said.

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