"If politicians remain too long in power, they develop bad habits" was the pearl of wisdom a deputy prime minister's young political aide never forgot.

Shahrir Abdul Samad, now serving as Johor Baru MP, said his then boss Musa Hitam imparted this gem when handpicking him to be his political secretary.

Yesterday, the latter moderated while the former spoke on political integrity at a two-hour panel discussion organised by the Malaysian Integrity Institute (MII) in Kuala Lumpur.

The Johor Baru Umno division chief said the lack of political integrity was more of an individual or personal rather than an institutional weakness.

"It's not so much the system as the individual who has to maintain high standards of good behaviour in order to have political integrity," he told about 50 participants.

Shahrir said it often became second nature to long-serving politicians to use money to gain position and power.

His case in point was ex-Umno vice-president Mohd Isa Abdul Samad who had helmed the Negeri Sembilan government for over 20 years before moving up to the federal level.

Umno sacked Mohd Isa after being found guilty of using money to secure the highest number of votes at the last party election.

Shahrir, who chairs the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club, said there was an urgent need to reform Parliament as MPs in government fail to detach themselves from their party interests when in the Dewan Rakyat.

People's mandate

"It is now run by civil servants and I feel the trepidation over dealing with too much bureaucracy, the dangers of which were exposed following the recent proposal to appoint a director-general."

He said the popular general notion has always been that candidates go for election to form the government as opposed to being elected as legislators.

"People accepted this but I'm turning that around today because the people's mandate must remain in Parliament.

"If people can accept this (reform), then they can begin making necessary changes by strengthening the legislative functions through closer scrutiny, monitoring and accountability," he said.

He believes that if the re-introduction of integrity fails in Parliament, it will fail elsewhere.

To succeed, he said, a distinction must be drawn between parliamentary and political parties along the lines of the UK legislature.

"My priority is... I want to (discourage) parliamentarians from aspiring to become ministers because when you are too ambitious, the executive has a firm grip on you.

"I'm trying to instil self-pride in my colleagues and show them that being a parliamentarian is honourable and that serving people should give them the satisfaction."

Shahrir said the window of opportunity for parliamentary reform which is open now must be taken advantage of especially with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's determination.

"But what I don't like is that none of the menteris besar and state leaders have said anything on implementing the national integrity plan," he chided.

"To their credit, the Inspector-General of Police is trying to do something despite all the criticism and negative perception facing them.

"I think the message has not yet sunk in among the politicians."

Material development

There were also several suggestions from the floor asking Shahrir to push for a parliamentary caucus on integrity similar to the one on human rights chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

A participant, expressing frustration over the state of the education system, challenged Shahrir to revolutionise it on grounds that social aspects including family values have totally lost out to intense physical and material development.

Earlier, renowned historian Dr Khoo Kay Kim who also sits on MII's board of directors, blamed the commercialisation and politicisation of education for creating a dangerous level of public cynicism.

Lamenting the sharp decline in standards, he said political interference in education has led to a growing number of Malaysians with little knowledge but impressive documents.

"Politicians believe they can obtain greater support by directly or indirectly managing education," he said, citing public and private universities as examples.

Khoo, who spoke on 'Politics and Ethics', said that even sports had not been spared because politicians wanted to ride on the high-profile bandwagon to enhance their careers, causing favouritism to seep into the selection of athletes, coaches and managers.

Since politics today had become a means to an end with politicians using their position to pursue wealth and power, he said only the people can bring them in line.

"But when the large majority of Malaysians lack the education to understand systems, laws, processes and procedures, it is extremely difficult to ensure that politics is closely guided by ethics."

The two-hour forum was attended by private individuals and representatives from various bodies including the Senate, the Cabinet, religious groups and retired top civil servants.

Transparency International Malaysia president Param Cumaraswamy, supporting Shahrir on parliamentary reform, stressed the need for leadership by example.

To illustrate the lack of it, he cited the poor response to TI Malaysia's survey of MPs' attitudes towards issues such as asset declaration, independent Anti-Corruption Agency and disclosure of political funding sources. It was done prior to the 2004 general election.

"Sadly enough, only 10 of the 199 MPs to whom we had sent the questionnaire replied. No responses came from any of the full ministers including the prime minister and his deputy.

"It calls into question whether there is the requisite political will to carry out the necessary reforms," he said.

He said that apart from the rhetorics, the PM has yet to publicly respond to calls for the declaration of assets of all administrative and elected public officials and their families, a code of conduct and an independent ombudsman.

"Moreover, only the PM and a couple of political leaders have been visible in this mission to fight corruption. Where are the other leaders, like the deputy prime minister?" posed Param.

Culture shock

To prevent duplication of MII's task, he said the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity should instead draft a code of conduct for all MPs, state legislators and top civil servants.

Musa, in his summation based on Malaysia's past political landscape, said that bringing the Malays who held political power into mainstream development had caused a culture shock.

"From living for the next world, the Malays were hit by present-day development and materialism.

Unfortunately, he said the highly-popular politics of development had only led to temporary success and is now on the decline.

"My answer (to corruption) is very simple. Just tangkap (arrest) those involved, drag them to court, shame them or jail them."

He said this would clearly show the leadership's seriousness combating graft.