I am shocked by the revelation of Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a member of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) appointed by the Prime Minister of the Pakatan Harapan government formed after the 14th General Election in 2018, that the CEP never produced a report. A report was prepared by the secretariat under former finance minister Daim Zainuddin but there was no report on the entire CEP.
I had all along been under the impression the that the CEP which besides Jomo and Daim, had former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Petronas president and chief executive officer Hassan Marican and corporate tycoon Robert Kuok, as members, had produced a report.
When Mahathir was Prime Minister a second time, I had urged him to make public the CEP report.
Nevertheless, I reiterate my call for the Report of the Secretariat of the CEP and the Institutional Reform Committee (IRC) to be tabled as a White Paper in Parliament before it adjourns next week on April 4 and the Reports should be referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee which should submit recommendations to the May/June meeting of Parliament starting on May 22, 2023 on the actions which should be taken on the CEP and IRC Reports.
The CEP chairman Tun Daim Zainuddin had called on the government to make the CEP’s recommendations available to the public.
He said that as part of the CEP’s efforts to look into the government finances, it had interviewed more than 300 individuals, including bankers, businessmen, civil servants, civil society members and union officials and that those interviewed had revealed a culture of turning a blind eye towards corruption.
It is time for Daim to clarify this report and to state whether he agrees that the report of the CEP secretariat and IRC should be made public.
In a talk organised by Oxford and Cambridge Society of Malaysia, Jomo said he had advised Mahathir about seven months ago to become an elder statesman for the developing world instead of being involved in politics.
I had also advised the two-time Prime Minister not to take part in the 15th General Election as a candidate or he would have spared the embarrassment and ignominy of losing his deposit in the parliamentary contest in Langkawi.