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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Stop abusing public funds and facilities, politicians told

Rais insisted the use of state facilities and equipment was only barred during the official campaigning period. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, April 10 ― Public office-bearers have a moral duty to stop using government property for political ends now that their terms have ended, human rights group Proham said today.
The group of former commissioners with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) said that while the law did not explicitly forbid caretaker government officials at both the federal and state levels from continuing to use their official cars and other such resources, they should consider their accountability to the electorate and refrain from doing so with the general election just around the corner.
“The contemporary practice in Malaysia shows that many politicians are abusing public resources to promote their political agenda and their political parties.
“This practice must stop so as to ensure that public resources are used for the common good of all citizens irrespective of political affiliations,” Proham said in a statement jointly signed by its chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun and secretary-general Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria.
The group said that the people’s sentiment was that no government-of-the-day should use public facilities and resources for party political work, and proposed that laws be tightened to ensure the abuses stop.
It said it was highlighting the issue following recent news reports of the Information Department using three vehicles for the opening of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s election command centre for the Batu parliamentary constituency here.
An interim government has the right to use government machinery as long as campaigning for an election has not started, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim was earlier today reported saying.
Government machinery cannot be used for party purposes only when the Election Commission announces nomination day and the campaigning period, state news agency Bernama quoted Rais saying.
The election regulator is meeting in Putrajaya now and will announce today the polling and nomination dates for Election 2013, touted to be Malaysia’s tightest-electoral contest as the PR federal opposition bloc moves to wrest power from the BN coalition. Proham commended the ethics of the Penang caretaker chief minister and his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state executive councillors in returning their official cars and their promise to use only their personal cars for party functions.
Earlier today PKR warned that BN needs to stop using government resources to campaign for itself since it is no longer in power.
“Since Parliament was dissolved, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration has failed to respect democratic principles by abusing the powers of a caretaker government by involving government resources and facilities to benefit Umno-BN,” PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar told reporters here.

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