Kit Siang: Najib needs a AES for corruption

Instead of barging ahead with the controversial Automatic Enforcement System (AES) for traffic violations, a similar system should be implemented for corruption, said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

"If (Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak is serious about giving priority to the battle against corruption, he should introduce and implement an AES to fight 'grand corruption' by making unusual and extraordinary wealth an automatic corruption offence," said Lim in a statement today.

Lim said the flagging of individuals who could live way beyond their means was a common practice in Hong Kong and other countries serious about fighting grand corruption.

An example, said Lim, was a recent report by Swiss-based NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) that reported that Sarawak Chief MinisterAbdul Taib Mahmud allegedly possesses US$15 billion in wealth and his family a total US$21 billion.

Another, he said, was with regards to the RM40 million political donation for Sabah Umno from a source that remains unclear.
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"If there is a AES making unusual and extraordinary wealth an automatic corruption offence, there would have been immediate anti-corruption action in both these Sabah and Sarawak cases.

"Is Najib prepared to introduce the AES in fighting corruption by introducing legislation to make it an automatic corruption offence for any public officer to have unusual or extraordinary wealth, as maintaining a standard of living or in control of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate and incommensurate with his official emolument, unless there is satisfactory explanation for such unusual and extraordinary wealth?" he said.

Lim noted that Malaysia was ranked 23rd on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index in 1995 with a score of 5.32, but had declined to 60th place with a score of 4.3 in 2011.
 
The AES aimed at catching traffic speedsters was set up by Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd and ATES Sdn Bhd for the government, and in exchange the two companies are entitled to a cut of the traffic summonses collected.