I do wish the Penang state government leaders would declare their assets as a fine example of accountability and transparency for the federal government and other state governments to emulate.
This is yet another reminder.
What’s holding them back?
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All govt servants have to declare their assets anyway. Public declaration can be dangerous and I guess it is just a poitical stunt , that’s all. They’ll come up with new things for GE13 manifesto to con people into voting them….
Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) CEO Idris Jala himself had said that 92 per cent of funding for the ETP programme would come from the private sector. He said the private sector would be the ETP’s backbone. This means the private sector — local businessmen, you, me, we are going to foot the bill. On the one hand, you tell us that the ETP will save Malaysia in 10 years, but on the other, you say the government has no money and the ETP would have to rely on the private sector. So I ask myself, if we, the… Read more »
Public declaration of assets is not going to prove that an adun or mp is clean or not. It never will because corrupt politicians are smart enough to hide their assets. And hiding assets is not rocket science especially in bolehland. It is up to we voters to scrutinise and watch the actions of this politicians and take appropiate action during polling day.
Catching the ones who are not smart is good enough. Declaration of assets is not to allow us to see how rich elected officials are, it is to facilitate exactly the scrutiny to which you refer. We must have a mechanism for detecting when an elected official is making decisions which obviously benefit his asset portfolio rather than his constituents. Self-certification of this kind is a good compromise between not knowing at all, and in-depth, costly investigations. If an elected official fails to declare assets which are later (by whatever means) discovered, there’s no need to prove malfeasance between shareholding… Read more »
Yes, good points there!
I thought a public declaration of assets by Aduns and MPs was part of the DAP manifesto in elections past or am I wrong ?
The difficult part is that many of the PR ADUN and MPs are lawyers. They are pretty wealthy. This was wealth they had built before becoming MPs/ADUNs.
On the positive side, this is the best time to do it, and it can be confidential, and kept by an independent body. At least in the future if queries pop up, they can show that they already had the money before the became ADUNs/MPs
I agree. Some of the richer MPs don’t want to advertise their wealth as it attracts unwanted attention like kidnapping of family members for ransom, while the poorer ones may be too embarassed to show the whole country how poor they are. We should respect their privacy too, so the best is to declare their assets to a Parliamentary Watchdog/Integrity Committee consisting of reputable citizens of the Country like retired Judge N. H. Chan, who have no business and don’t do business with the govt anymore so that they can watch how the MPs conduct themselves.
If wealthier than 5 million, I suggest to drop them. Very arrogant and selfish, some of these guys are. Addition of MP’s powers makes the worst of them absolutely intolerable and dangerous to have ability to write policy . . .
I might have made a hash of that point. Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (the only PSM member I have really read anything about or by) seems a very decent fellow. The problem is not that he has failed to do anything one might wish the majority of electables would do, it is that PSM catastrophically fail to communicate their decent behaviour to a wider audience. socialism (if I can start a sentence with a small ‘s’) is no worse than any other political ideal, but Socialism – the hours of pounding a lectern while shouting the orthodox message to crowds of… Read more »
The stench of cliques and resistance to change is strong in PSM. Quasi cult-like in their mannerisms. I’m not going to make a Samy Vellu of PSM, but . . .
(Their connections with) their contractor friends…?
All their lame excuses are just that. Lame.
This DAP government is just like the BN. Little difference.
In the meantime, they pay senior citizens RM100 bribes to make themselves look good.
Malaysia always lose out and can’t move forward because we still have many people like you. Mentality is still remained backward.
How could you say giving RM100 to senior citizens considers bribes?? DAP goverment giving money to help old and poor people. What is wrong with you?? Can you differenciate right or wrong?
At least DAP goverment not letting millions….millions being stolen…siphoned away via dubious contracts…commission… That makes a big diffence between BN and DAP!!!
“What’s holding them back?” The 2 party system. They don’t have to be good, only better than the other party. The other party is … that other party. PR don’t have to do anything of any value at all, as long as they don’t murder anyone, destroy Malaysia’s natural wealth or spend enormous amounts of public money on themselves /too/ obviously. Malaysian politics is going precisely nowhere until there are more than two choices and more than one of them are conscionable. It wouldn’t even matter if was the MachaMicho Party (in it for the laughs) as long as they… Read more »
A MachaMicho party might be good for a laugh and to show up the other parties. But whatever you think of PSM, their leaders have already declared their assets.
When you are a nobody there is nothing to stop you from publicly declare your assets. But when you are a somebody everything has changed. Among the things you have to consider is the safety of your family members. Are you going to declare how many cars you have (and the makes and models and their plate numbers as well)? What if your wife uses one of the cars to ferry your children to and from school? Are you going to risk they being stalked? And when does this end? Do politicians (leaders) have to declare how much they spend… Read more »
I’d say if your performance in government can be changed by stalkers, you have already failed. That “think of the children” argument is utter rubbish. I’m surprised at you trotting out a ‘meritocracy’ argument to convince people to close one eye.
Tried engaging them on in casual banter and various issues before, but found them rather arrogant and distant, with a self important and bureaucratic attitude.
They don’t feel very grassroots at all and appear to have internalized an exclusive culture based around socialism which lacks enthusiasm and openness as well.
Won’t go as far as to say it’s a race based party, but with their links with Hindraf, they would seem very much that and might even be quite discriminative against target groups. Any thoughts or rebuttals?