KUCHING: The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have been encouraged to strengthen their roles in getting members of parliament (MPs) to declare their assets and incomes.
“When some of the members of Pakatan Harapan (PH) government fail to declare their assets, the opposition will hold it against the government,” said University of Malaya (UM) senior lecturer, Associate Professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi when contacted recently.
“Moreover, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) claimed that it (the declaration) is not in parallel with the teachings of Islam.
“They also pointed out that the opposition has no access to government projects.
“This is a weak argument because the declaration of assets is important to ensure the credibility of all political party members regardless of differences in ideology.”
At Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), senior lecturer Dr Farizal Mohd Razalli stressed that to be fair, the declaration of assets is not enforced yet.
“Generally, the asset declaration is not yet compulsory so MPs are solely at their discretion to do so,” he explained.
“However, the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) provides the initiative on asset declaration as part of its 22 key initiatives.”
Yesterday in the Dewan Rakyat, a motion was tabled to compel all MPs to declare their income and assets to the MACC.
Deputy Speaker Nga Kor Ming said the government waited for a year but no opposition members whether from Umno, MCA, MIC or PAS have declared their incomes and assets.
A check by Bernama at MACC’s Asset Declaration Portal at 2pm yesterday showed that 124 or 89.2 per cent of government MPs have declared their assets while not even one from the opposition has done so.
