In his reply during the winding-up of the debate on the Royal Address on Monday, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, did not refute my statement that in a recent government survey with international businessmen, corruption in Malaysia rank high in their worries with regard to the investment conditions in the country. In fact, corruption was one of the five top concerns of international businessmen about Malaysia in this survey.
This is why the DAP welcome and support the announcement by Anwar in his reply that the Government has decided to provide more funds and manpower to the Anti-Corruption Agency, as well as being in the final stages in the drafting of amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, although these efforts seem too puny, grudging and very late in the day when compared to the challenge of rooting out corruption, which has become rampant in the country.
The government must show greater commitment in the war against corruption, especially in high political places, and make a special effort to assure international businessmen that Malaysia would declare an all-out war against corruption which must be reflected in the improvement of Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International’s (TI) international corruption perception index.
There is no doubt that the case of the Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Muhammad Taib, who was arrested at the Brisbane International Airport for not declaring RM2.4 million cash as well as reports about his wealth and properties in Australia, would be a major factor not only in determining Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International’s international corruption perception index for 1997, but in assuring international businessmen that corruption need not be a top worry when considering Malaysia as an investment destination or in responding to Malaysia’s drive for international support for the RM5 billion Multimedia Super Corridor.
Yesterday, the Brisbane Courier Mail carried another report on Tan Sri Muhammad’s caper in Brisbane, under the heading "A matter of a suitcase of cash and a Malaysian minister".
The report later referred to Muhammad Taib’s three different explanations for the money:
If Muhammad Taib love Malaysia, he should resign as Selangor Mentri Besar so as as to end the enormous embarrassment he is causing the nation with endless international reports about his vast wealth and so as not to jeopardise Malaysia’s ranking in the new 1997 Transparency International corruption perception index to be released mid-year.
This is the only right and proper course for Muhammad Taib to take as he has refused or is unable to publicly and satisfactorily account for his various properties in Australia and other wealth running into tens of millions of ringgit grossly disproportionate to his known means of income.
In fact, the latest book by the self-described "most controversial political analyst known as the Killer Writer who has caused the downfall of two Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and many other Malay political leaders", S.H. Alattas, is on Muhammad Taib with the title "The Five Hundred MILLION Dollarman".
In reply to my interjection on Monday, Anwar said that there is already provision in the existing anti-corruption legislation for the ACA to take action against political and government leaders who have accumulated wealth beyond legally-known means.
However, in the 30-year history of the ACA, there has not been a single case of a top political leader or government official who had been prosecuted for corruption arising from having accumulated enormous wealth or ostentatious living completely disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Is the government or the ACA suggesting that in the past three decades, there has not been a single case of a political leader or high government official who had acccumulated vast wealth and lived most ostentatiously completely disproportionate to his known sources of income?
I have no doubt that if the ACA invites the public to report cases of political leaders and government officials who are living ostentatiously and having unusual wealth and income disproportionate to their known sources of income, promising a thorough inquiry and a proper accounting into each report, it would be inundated with public reports.
Let me state here and now that the Malaysian public are very disappointed by the ACA’s handling of the Muhammad Taib case, as how could the ACA gain public confidence that it has the power and independence to investigate cases involving top political leaders when it dare not even state whether it had interrogated Muhammad Taib and ordered him to declare his assets and those of his wife, children and next of kin.
If the government is serious that there would be no compromise in combating corruption, then more funds and more manpower are not enough.
I would commend the Government to give serious thought to the New Straits Times editorial today, under the subject "Way To Fight Graft", which stressed:
"The men who man ACA must be of unimpeachable integrity; if not, how effective would they be in rooting out the corrupt in government agencies or departments".
The editorial proposed a return to the old system where the agency had a small core of permanent administrative staff, while the investigators were all officers seconded from other agencies like the Police Department and the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The seconded officers only served for relatively short periods with the ACA so that they would not become too comfortable in their jobs or too familiar with the people they deal with.
As the editorial said: "Familiarity might also lead to temptation and that is the last thing ACA men should face, especially if at the fag-end of their career."
I support the New Straits Times editorial proposal that the government should consider the option of staffing the ACA with skilled officers seconded from other agencies for periods of about five years, which "would be long enough for them to master the special skills required of anti-corruption officers but too short for them to be accustomed with their environment and become complancent. Or perhaps, succumb to temptation." I hope the government would adopt this proposal for a more effective ACA. In the 30-year history of the ACA, two director-generals stood out, the first director-general, Tan Sri Mr. Justice Harun Hashim and Tan Sri Zulkifli Mahmood.
Although both were known for their commitment to fight corruption, both were not able to achieve much. Tan Sri Zulkifli was even more unfortunate than the first ACA Director-General, which was explained by Harun Hashim in his New Straits Times column on 5th December last year, where he said:
"When I was director-general of the ACA in the 1960s I authorised all prosecutions without reference to either the Prime Minister or the Attorney-General. Tunku Abdul Rahman who was the Prime Minister at the time wanted it that way to assure the public that there was no political interference of the ACA".
I would urge the government to revert to this position and ensure that in the amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act, the ACA Director-General is given the power to decide on prosecutions without having to get the prior approval from the Attorney-General.
Furthermore, the ACA should be elevated to an autonomous body answerable only to Parliament, and not be a mere department in the Prime Minister’s Office, to give it full power and authority to act against the corrupt without fear or favour.
Two days ago, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Finance Ministry, Datuk Dr. Shafie Mohd. Salleh said that applicants for jobs in banks and financial institutions may be required to sit a psychological/personality test under a government effort to reduce white collar crime in the industry which amounts to millions of ringgit a year.
He said Bank Negara will prepare a set of procedures on the proposed test which if adopted, will apply to only new candidates.
White-collar crimes have indeed become a very serious problem in Malaysia, as a total of 5,777 fraud cases had been reported since 1992 - 1,416 cases in 1993, 718 in 1994, 775 in 1995 and 870 cases in the first 11 months of last year.
While the purpose and intention of such a psychological/personality test to reduce the possibility of white-collar crimes is commendable, it must remain dubious whether there could be effective psychological/personality tests which could detect the criminal propensity of a candidate to commit white collar crimes in future.
If there are such psychological/personality tests, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Mentri-Mentri Besar and Chief Ministers should also be required to undergo these tests to reduce the incidence of corruption not only because of the international perception that corruption has become a serious issue in Malaysia, but to demonstrate the government’s commitment to fight corruption, particularly corruption in high political places.