Naroden says has declared his assets to Chief Minister

KUCHING: Assistant Minister of Entrepreneur and Small, Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais has disclosed that recently he declared his assets to the Chief Minister.

The Assistant Minister of ECommerce, however, said he could not speak on behalf of the entire state cabinet but as far as he was concerned, he had done the declaration of assets.

“I don’t know about others. But for me, I declared everything even my savings, income, assets, houses and land,” he said when asked to comment on the announcement of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad last Friday, that cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, political secretaries and government officials must declare their assets to the prime minister.

Naroden, who is Gedong assemblyman, said the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government should extend the policy to all its members of parliament (MPs).

“For PH MPs, they should declare (their assets) too,” he quipped.

He said all Sarawak state cabinet members as well as state assemblymen and assemblywomen had signed the integrity pledge during former chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem’s time.

He added that they signed the integrity pledge again when Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg took office early last year.

“We even pledged before the (former) MACC (Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission chief commissioner,” said Naroden.

On Sunday, PH Sarawak called upon the state government under the leadership of Abang Johari to emulate PH federal government’s policy of requiring ministers and government officials to declare their assets.

Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the act of declaring assets by ministers and government officials should pave the way for transparency and good governance.