Barisa

The Chairman                                                                                                                       15th August, 2007

Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity

Dear Sir,

Re: Memorandum for the Improvement of Integrity in Malaysia

The Government of Malaysia has initiated and formulated the National Integrity Plan in 2004. However, we do not see much improvement with regard to the integrity of the government, its departments or agencies since the initiation of the Plan. In fact many felt that it has worsened in the last 3 years.

In order for integrity to be established in Government administration, there must be good governance, transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness. The Government administration must also be free from corruption.

The Perak DAP proposes the following 8 recommendations in order to improve the integrity of the Government administration in Malaysia.

1. The top national leaders must lead by example

The integrity of our Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Abdullah Badawi has suffered a bad onslaught when he failed and/or refused to explain to the public the meteoric rise in the price of the shares of his son’s company, Scomi in a short span of time he became Prime Minister which make his son, Kamaludin bin Abdullah Badawi instantly a few hundred million ringgits richer.

Similarly, the Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak must explain the few hundred million ringgits in commission or purported maintenance payment with regard to the purchase of the 2 submarines and the Sukhoe fighter jets. He must clear the air that he did not benefit from the said commission or maintenance payments. As Defence minister he has the final say in the said purchases.

Unless the top 2 men in the Government hierarchy clear their names, it will be difficult to imbue integrity into the Government administration. Otherwise their attempts to bring integrity into the Government administration will be like the Malay saying‘ Ketam mengajar anak berjalan lurus ‘. If the top is crooked so will be the subordinates.

2. Transparency

Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International ( TI ) Corruption Perception Index ( CPI ) has dropped from 37th place in 2003 when Dato’ Seri Abdullah Badawi assumed premiership to 44th place in 2006. The promised open tender system for all Government projects was not followed. Allegations of corruption and favouritism in the award of Government projects are rampant. Coupled with the Official Secrets Act 1972 where Government decisions are not allowed to be disclosed to the public, the integrity of the government in the eyes of the public is suffering a heavy beating. The Government must be more transparent and its dealings make public in order to restore its integrity.

3. The Abolition of Official Secrets Act 1972 and Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and substitute them with Freedom of Information Act

In a survey conducted by Freedom House, a Washington based non-governmental organization that advocates ‘the expression of freedom in the world’, Malaysia has been placed 150 out of a total of 195 nations surveyed in its ‘Global Survey of Media Independence’. This does not augur well for the nation as the people will start to doubt the reliability of the information and news carried by our media. If the people doubt the information and news broadcasted by the Government, it will severely affect the integrity of the Government in the eyes of the people.

In this internet age, people will believe other sources of information if they know that the information in the main stream media is tightly controlled by the Government thus, undermining the trust in the Government and therefore, its integrity.

Official Secrets Act 1972 has been repeatedly abused by the Government to cover up corruption, abuse of power and wrong doings of the Government. Unless it is repealed it will greatly undermine the integrity of the Governments

4. Making the Anti Corruption Agency an independent body answerable to Parliament

The need is obvious. The main target groups of the anti-corruption campaign are the Government ministries, departments and agencies. Unless it is independent of any Government ministry, department or agency, it cannot be effective. People are cynical of the ACA at the moment and have described it as a ‘toothless tiger’.

With the former ACA Director General, Datuk Zulkifli Mat Nor accused by his own state chief of corruption, there is a urgent need to take steps to restore the confidence of the people in its integrity.

5. We need the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and the appointment of a full time Internal Security Minister immediately to solve the problems in the police force

Tun Hanif Omar, the former Inspector General of Police has stated in his article ‘The Fence That Eats The Rice’ or in Malay ‘Pagar makan padi’ in the Star newspaper on 12th August 2007 that corruption in the police force is so extensive that a very senior ACA officer had confided in him and another top retired officer that 40% of the officers could be arrested without further investigations – strictly on the basis of their lifestyles. He stated that one state police chief had a net worth of RM18.0 Million and that he was watching the force getting deeper and deeper into the morass of corruption.

Drugs can be purchased in prison. In a case where my client was charged for drug trafficking, he could buy drug from the police during his detention at the lock up when the trial was going on!

No one at the top seems to be taking charge of the deteriorating situation in the police force. Crime rate is so high and the public is slowly but surely losing faith in the police force. Our Prime Minister is a part time Internal Security Minister (who is also Prime Minister and Finance Minister) who has no time for hands on actions. His Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Johari Baharum was accused of corruption and so is the present Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan. It is now in the open that there is bad blood between the Deputy Home Minister and the Inspector General of Police.

Meanwhile, things are changing from bad to worse. There had been a 27% increase in the crime index from 156,455 cases in 2004 to 198,622 cases in 2006. There were 8.2 cases of rape a day in the first six months of this year as compared to 4 cases a day in 2003 !

With the rampant corruption in the police up to the highest level, we can no longer trust the police using their own internal disciplinary process to check on corruption and its internal problems. What moral standing does a senior corrupt police officer has to stand in judgment of a corrupt junior officer ?

6. The Government must by its actions shows that it is a Government for all rather than for a particular race or select groups

The integrity of a person is in suspect if he is a racist or he fails to observe the universally accepted dogma that justice demands that a person be treated fairly irrespective of his race or religion. In Malaysia, many of the Government policies are still racially and religiously motivated. Due to its continued emphasis of giving preferential treatment to the Malay or Bumiputra races and the Islamic religion, the Government makes non-Malays or non-bumiputras and those who are non-Muslims feel that the Government cannot be trusted in giving them a fair treatment. The Muslim and Malay or Bumiputra leaders in the Government are often not seen by these Non-Malay or Non –Bumiputra and non -Muslims as their leaders.

A recent example why the integrity of the Government suffers in the eyes of non- Malays or non- Bumiputras is the disclosure by the Works Minister Datuk Samy Vellu that 96% of the RM46.8 billion allocated under the 9th Malaysian Plan for basic infrastructures projects are given to bumiputras. Similars examples can be cited many times over.

The Government gives financial allocation only for the development of the Islamic faith but not to other religions. How can be it said the Government has integrity when it collects taxes from all ?

7. Election of Local Government councillors

The integrity of the Government suffers a great set back when it refuses to bring back the local government elections. Under the present system of appointment, even the appointed councilors feel that they are helpless as the civil servants heading and administering the local governments can decide and do what they like. They are not subjected to the councilors. Therefore, all round the country you can see rampant corrupt practices, problematic projects and all sorts of abuse of the local government funds. Although these projects are smaller in scale compared with the Federal Government projects, the people can see more clearly the corruption and the abuses in these projects as they are being built in their neighbourhood and they are familiar with the costs of these smaller projects. Wastage, problematic projects and abuse of public funds damage greatly the integrity of the government.

An elected local government will be more accountable to the people.

8. Setting up of a Committee for the appointment of Judicial Commissioners and Judges and also their promotions

The qualities of some of the judicial commissioners and judges of our courts have been questioned by many. The integrity of some of them is dubious as there have been allegations of corruption and wrong doings by them. Even the Chief Justice of the Federal Court has admitted in one of his speeches that there exists such a problem. With such a scenario, the public trust in the judiciary will be eroded. While the Federal Constitution provides for their minimum qualification, we do not know the selection process and how these judges are selected. By having a committee to deliberate on the candidates proposed for selection it will be more transparent and objective. Consequently, more suitable candidates will be selected and therefore, enhance the integrity of the judiciary. Any litigant coming before a court of justice must have the confidence that he will be given a fair hearing base on the merits of his case and not be denied justice due to corruption or incompetence of the judge.

We trust that your committee will give due consideration to the above said proposals which we strongly believe, if implemented will enhance the integrity and the good governance of the Government administration.

Yours faithfully,

( Ngeh Koo Ham )

Perak DAP Chairman cum

Opposition Leader of the Perak Legislative Assembly

(15/8/2007)