Government must implement an institutional reform - Bersih

SHAH ALAM – The best way to curb and overcome corruption as well as abuse of power efficiently is if the government acts aggressively.

Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) chairman Thomas Fann said the unity government under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's leadership must carry out institutional and personnel reforms.

He said reforms in important sectors would enable the government bodies to carry out their duties and trust given with a sense of responsibility.

He said the implementations would have all government agencies serving transparently, especially those that involved financial aspects and national procurement.

"This is to ensure the government under Anwar's leadership is accountable and completely transparent in financial matters.

"There must be a renewed commitment to fight corruption wholeheartedly," he told Sinar Premium on Wednesday.

Thomas said among the commitments that must be implemented was to ensure the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is a body free from political influences.

He said laws such as the Political Funding Act and the Procurement Act must be introduced by the government to ensure transparency and prevent abuse of power.

"If the measures are taken, I believe we will see an improvement towards the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) scores in the coming years," he said.

Thomas said the decline in Malaysia's overall CPI scores for three years happened due to the political commotion after the 'Sheraton Move'.

He said the democracy level was at its lowest when a government without the people's mandate had decided to overthrow a legally elected government.

"There was a reduction in transparency and accountability at the time when the Parliament was hung and its role as an institution to perform checks and balances was blocked.

"A large amount of funds were set aside with little scrutiny during the outbreak, this contributed to the decrease in CPI score," he said.