MAHATHIR STRIKES A CHILL THROUGH HIS CABINET, GOVT – ‘YOU HAVE ALL BEEN FORMALLY DEFINED AS PUBLIC OFFICERS SO THAT YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE LAW IF YOU DO SOMETHING WRONG’: FRUGAL PM ALSO BANS GIFTS – ‘NO MERCEDES OR PROTON, ONLY FOOD. FLOWERS, PLAQUES’

THE Pakatan Harapan cabinet and lawmakers have been defined as “public officers” to ensure that they can be held accountable for their actions in office, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We have decided that the prime minister and deputy prime minister, ministers and government are also public officers and cannot escape the law if they have assets that they cannot explain how they were obtained,” said Dr Mahathir, after attending the second National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) meeting this morning.

Ministers and government MPs must report all their gifts to the relevant authorities, he said.

“They can only accept flowers, food or plaques (honouring or thanking them for a service provided). They can accept but these things must still be reported. 

“But if they are given a Mercedes(-Benz) or even a Proton, they cannot accept the gifts,” said Dr Mahathir.

The 92-year-old prime minister said government officers must also report if there are suspicions of corruption. And the GIACC discussed “several laws” that will be amended to reduce the corruption in the country.

He said that Pakatan cabinet and its MPs have to declare their assets to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission although he did not set any deadline.

“We want to combat corruption but it’s not easy as it comes in many forms,” he said.

But he told a China reporter that Malaysia will not have capital punishment for corruption.

“We know that China is very strict on corruption but there will be no capital punishment here. We stop at that.”

The “public officer” issue came about when Dr Mahathir tried to sue former prime minister Najib Razak for alleged wrongful exercise of authority in public office.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court, however, ruled in April 2017 that “the prime minister, deputy prime minister and political secretaries were not in public service or public officers but members of the administration”.

Dr Mahathir also said the committee is looking at drafting news laws and revising the code of ethics to govern political funding in the country.

“Political parties need money to campaign and supporters do give money. But if the money is given in return for some favour later, then it is corruption.”

He said there were many forms of political funding and the GIACC was still reviewing the different systems.

“In Germany, for instance, the government gives money to parties and the US uses lobbyists. But that (lobbyists) is corruption to us.”

The GIACC will formulate laws to ensure political funding will bar granting of favours to donors. The prime minister, however, did not give any timeline on when the new laws or code of ethics will be enforced.

According to a GIACC officer, all PH lawmakers will be given a special briefing in the MACC tomorrow on the code of ethics concerning gifts.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com