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DAP calls for a high-level NAM Ministerial Anti-Corruption  Conference later this  year  to mark the highest point of three-year Malaysian Chair of NAM before the passing of the baton to  Cuba in 2006 Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): The Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the Advancement of Women ended yesterday with the Putrajaya Declaration but only time can tell whether this first-ever NAM meeting on gender equality, empowerment and development, attended by 54 ministers and heads of delegation from the 84 participating countries, would lead to major and sustained improvement of the status of women in the NAM countries. Malaysia’s chairmanship of the 116-nation NAM will end next year when the 14th NAM Summit is held in Cuba.  More needs to  be done if Malaysia’s Chair of NAM is to leave a major imprint in NAM and international relations, in particular in injecting a new relevance into NAM. DAP calls for a high-level NAM Ministerial Anti-Corruption  Conference in Malaysia  later this  year  to mark the climax  of the three-year Malaysian Chair of NAM before passing the  baton  to Cuba in 2006. As Chair of NAM, Malaysia must play a seminal  role to dispel the perception that NAM is nothing more than a talk-shop, or worse, a selective talk-shop where issues important to the people of the NAM countries  but embarrassing to the rulers are avoided like the plague. One such issue is the grave problem of rampant corruption of NAM governments. The overwhelming majority of the 25 most corrupt countries out of 145 nations in the 2004 Corruption Perception Index survey of Transparency International are members of NAM -  with Bangladesh leading the infamous pack, followed by Nigeria, Myanmar, Chad, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Cote d Ivoire, Congo Democratic Republic,  Angola, Pakistan, Kenya, Iraq, Cameroon, Sudan, Niger, Guatemala and Bolivia. Malaysia will leave a memorable and valuable legacy as the 13th NAM Chair by holding the first-ever high-level NAM Ministerial Anti-Corruption  Conference to send out a loud and clear message that henceforth, corruption would be one of the top priority concerns of NAM in its commitment to deliver good governance – which is the prerequisite for  the revitalization of NAM by finding a new relevance to the peoples of the 116 member nations. Before handing  over the Chair  next year,  Malaysia should make NAM history by pioneering a new NAM chapter where corruption is no more condoned in all the NAM countries, with the establishment of a NAM mechanism to monitor and eradicate the scourge of corruption in the 116 NAM  nations. (11/05/2005)                                                                  *  Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, MP for Ipoh Timur & DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman