Instead of conducting a course on corruption for MPs, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) should be holding it for the prime minister and his cabinet instead, said DAP.

“The MACC and the Attorney-General’s (AG) Chambers should not be barking up the wrong tree as they should know where the priorities in fighting corruption, especially grand corruption, should lie,” said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in a statement today.

NONE “Let me tell MACC and the AG’s Chambers that the urgent priority in the battle against graft in Malaysia is ... to conduct a  course on corruption for the prime minister, deputy prime minister, cabinet ministers, mentris besar and chief ministers particularly Sarawak and Sabah as well as top government officers including the attorney-general Gani Patail himself, if Malaysia is serious in its  war against ‘grand corruption’,” said Lim.

He was referring to Pemandu’s statement yesterday that the government is planning to hold the course for MPs as part of its Government Transformation Plan 2.0 (GTP 2.0), next year.

Lim ridiculed the plan saying that rather than MPs, it is the top political leaders who do not know “what is right to take and what is not right to take”.

azlan He cited the “many allegations of abuses of power, malpractices and even corruption against them which had not been responded fully and satisfactorily” such as the Sabah Umno RM40 million ‘ political donation ’ poser and Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s alleged RM64 billion in wealth as claimed by NGO Bruno Manser Fund.

 

He dared the MACC and AG’s Chambers to not only conduct a course for the top officials on corruption, but also on “their responsibility to account fully and satisfactorily when serious corruption allegations are publicly made against them, including clearing their names and establishing their reputation in the courts of law”.

Among others, he was likely referring to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who has been criticised for not responding to the allegations of a close associate Deepak Jaikishan that he had given land to Najib’s family in return for a share in a defence deal.

NONE Yesterday Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Low (right) said that despite Malaysia’s improvement in the Corruption Perception Index score to 54 from last year’s 60, the score is nevertheless 'mediocre' and that the high profile corruption scandals are stopping the country from curbing corruption.

Low also said their study showed “corruption in the public sector is systemic, and in some areas, institutionalised”, leading to half the companies surveyed reporting loss of business and contacts due to bribery.