DAP will direct its 3 Selangor State EXCO members and Selangor State Speaker to publicly declare their personal assets
DAP will direct its 3 Selangor State EXCO Members and Selangor State Speaker to publicly declare their personal assets to fulfill DAP general election commitment towards transparency accountability and integrity. DAP 3 EXCO members are Teng Chang Khim, Ean Yong Hian Wah and Ganapathi Rao whereas the Selangor State Speaker is Hannah Yeoh.
Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim announced yesterday that he will not direct its Selangor state EXCO members to publicly declare their assets acquired before being appointed as State EXCO members due to concerns of the personal security and safety of the EXCO members and their families. Tan Sri Abdul Khalid said that the refusal to publicly declare their assets was motivated by the fears of some EXCO members that their personal safety and that of their families may be compromised, if their substantial assets they held before being appointed as State EXCO members were publicly known.
DAP respectfully disagrees with Tan Sri Abdul Khalid’s reasoning as this is what BN had relied on as an excuse in refusing to publicly declare their assets. Unfortunately the then Malaysia Transparency International(TI) President Paul Low, who is now the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had supported BN’s position by not requiring any public declaration of assets in TI’s Integrity Pledge for the recent general elections.
DAP had never understood why TI Malaysia and Paul Low refused to require a public declaration of assets by government leaders which is against TI’s basic principles internationally until Paul Low accepted appointment as a Cabinet member. To-date Paul Low had refused to adopt DAP’s proposal of a public declaration of assets by BN Ministers and State EXCO members.
Despite this disagreement with Tan Sri Abdul Khalid, DAP will not impose its views on the Selangor state government. When the Penang PR state government became the first state government in Malaysia to publicly declare the assets of the Chief Minister and all its State EXCO members, no EXCO member nor their families’ personal safety was threatened.
The Penang PR leaders’ public declaration of assets included all assets held before being appointed as state EXCO members and were certified by an international auditing firm. The declaration of assets held before being appointed as a State EXCO member is important to demonstrate that there were neither conflict of interest issues nor abuse of power when decisions are made by the EXCO members or Chief Minister.
DAP had made a general election commitment to publicly declare the assets of all Ministers and state EXCO members. DAP must adhere to this minimal standards of integrity set and will not lower the bar but is compelled to fulfil its general election promise by directing its Selangor State EXCO members and Selangor State Speaker to publicly declare their assets. The timing of the public declaration of assets will be discussed at the party’s Central Executive Committee(CEC) meeting in DAP Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur next Tuesday.
