Umno vice-president Najib Tun Razak told reporters today that it was not yet necessary to bring in the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) into the party to deal with the scourge of money politics in the light of the upcoming divisional election next month.

"As far as possible we don't want the ACA to come in because, as pointed out by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, we have the capability to handle money politics within Umno through our newly formed disciplinary committee.

"If the problem of money politics becomes severe, then maybe ACA can come in," Najib told reporters after giving a luncheon talk entitled "Defending Sovereignty in a Globalised World" during the two-day International Forum on Globalisation in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was asked to comment on Abdullah's statement last Friday that ACA might be brought in to curb money politics within Umno.

Abdullah said that Umno members have agreed to abide to ethical standards.

"We have agreed that money politics is not good for anyone, it is not good now and not good ever," said Abdullah, who is also Umno disciplinary committee chairman. ([#1] ACA should act against money politics: Pak Lah [/#], Feb 23 )

In an interview on Jan 3, de facto law minister Dr Rais Yatim told malaysiakini that in order to curb money politics in Umno, the ACA must be allowed to investigate into alleged abuses in the party ([#2] Let ACA fight money politics in Umno [/#], Jan 3).

New world order

During the question and answer session with Najib at the forum, a participant asked what the government planned to do in order to protect itself from "attacks against it in a cyberwar".

Conceding that not much can be done, Najib said, "If you want to be part of the global order and we want to be part of the global order, you have to deal with the bad and the good. Like, for example, if you want the Multimedia Super Corridor and the Internet, you have to deal with the positive and the negative," he said.

"We are not going to censor the Internet. All we can do is improve people's perception of us (to stop the attacks).

"If we have to be more transparent, more accountable, more responsible, so be it. That's what we have to do in the new world order. I don't see any other option," Najib said.

The forum, sponsored by the Ministry of Finance and the Institute for Strategic and International Studies, ends today.

Greater equity

Earlier during his speech, Najib told participants of the forum that there needs to be greater equity among countries of the world.

"We should not work towards the clashing of communities, states, regions and civilisations, but rather towards a far more equitable world where the poor and the weak will have sufficient stakes in the international system.

"One is not advocating that the powerful should give up their might, for this falls in the realm of idealism; however, the majority should be empowered to be much more independent to determine their destinies," said Najib, who is also the defence minister.