‘Cancer’ which started under Dr M
Malaysiakini
Nov 7, 2006
Soon Li Tsin

The country’s dismal performance in a global corruption index is attributable to the previous administration, said the de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz in Parliament today.

In the debate session, he faced a barrage of questions from Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang on Malaysia’s downwards trend in the Transparency International’s 2006 Corruption Perception Index.

Likening corruption to a form of ‘terminal cancer’, Lim said the lowly ranking proved failure on both the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s promise to fight corruption.

Nazri responded by saying that corruption did not surface overnight and was a result of the previous administration. Abdullah took over the leadership helm from Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2003.

“Cancer takes years to develop, this would mean the corruption problem began 5-6 years ago. So now it has matured into this terminal cancer and the government of the day has the burden to fight it.”

“Corruption is mindset. We can’t change it in 4-5 years. It takes time until it becomes part of our culture. I disagree with what (Lim) said as though corruption has gotten worse under this administration - it’s an accumulative effect.”

“It doesn’t mean we are not doing out job. We’ll keep fighting this cancer,” Nazri said.

He then said that he will ask the ACA to find out the possible reasons that caused the rankings to fall five places from 39 last year to 44 this year.

“The index may not show the true condition of transparency in the country. Also we don’t have any other indicators.

“However we will learn from this and work harder for next year’s index,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

Unreasonable request

Lim then said that for the sake of transparency, the prime minister should allow for an open investigation in the oil for food, Scomi Sdn Bhd (involving his son, Kamaluddin) and ECM Libra (involving his son in law, Khairy Jamaluddin) issues.

“I’m sure the ACA would investigate if there’s evidence of corruption. But the fact that PM is brave enough to make his statement on TV and has not prevented any investigations.”

“If he is wrong, it will eventually be found out,” Nazri answered.

Kamarudin Jaffar (PAS - Tumpat) then suggested that officials needs to declare not just their assets and earnings, but their also of their family’s.

This prompted Nazri to reply curtly: “If they’re all grown up, why must they disclose their assets? They are not part of the administration. This is an unreasonable request.”

He later affirmed that officials need only disclose assets for those still dependent on them.

Nazri added later that ACA is currently probing into how Port Klang assemblyperson Zakaria Md Deros amassed fortune in building his RM8 million ‘Istana Zakaria’.