Najib signs clean polls pledge

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak signed the Election Integrity Pledge today as a show of his commitment to curbing corruption during the coming 13th general election.

Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Low (seated on the right))and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy operations chief Mohd Shukri Abdull witnessed the brief signing ceremony at Najib's office in Putrajaya.

Najib then handed the pledge, drawn up by TI-M, to Low, while Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and other BN component party leaders looked on.

The pledge stipulates four principles that BN leaders would observe when contesting in the election:

• Truth, integrity, ethical conduct and accountability, including not accepting or giving bribes or being involved in corrupt practices in way;

• Upholding and giving priority to the interests of the rakyat as a whole;

• Good governance and transparency; and

• Compliance with all the applicable laws and regulations of Malaysia.

Commenting on the pledge he signed, Najib said he would ensure that all BN candidates would follow these principles.

'A global feat if all candidates sign'

"Candidates from BN have gone through MACC's screening process, so it is appropriate that they now state their commitment to clean and fair elections by stepping forward and signing the Election Integrity Pledge," Najib said in a press statement.

Met after the ceremony, Low said he hoped all political parties, including Pakatan Rakyat coalition members and independent candidates, would join in and sign the pledge.

“However, it is up to them. We want candidates with integrity in this effort to fight corruption and change Malaysia’s political culture,” he said.

In a separate statement he issued, Low lauded Najib’s signing of the pledge as “an encouraging indicator of the government’s seriousness in fighting corruption and practising good governance.”

If Najib succeeds in persuading all BN candidates to sign the pledge, he said, the feat would be the first in the world.

“It is now up to members of the public to be the eyes and ears to monitor the adherence of their elected representatives’ to these standards,” Low said.

While the pledge launched by TI-M in March last year is not legally binding, the NGO publishes the contact details of all signatories on its website in the hope that this would put them under constant public scrutiny. 

The initiative was initially met with a poor response, with only four out of the country’s 222 MPs signing the pledge in three weeks after its launch.