Mahathir invites public to join hands in combating corruption
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday urged all members of the public to play a part in helping the government to combat corruption.
He said the public should not be afraid to report cases of corruption to the authority, assuring that their actions would not result in any action taken against them.
“We need support of the people. The people must understand that corruption is not good for them. Therefore, they must play a part in eradicating corruption.
“If there is any evidence at all of corruption in the government, we hope the people will indicate and will be good whistleblowers to inform the authority that there are corrupt personnel in the government,” he said in his keynote address at the AntiCorruption Summit 2018 here, yesterday.
He also stressed that public interest and cooperation in combating corruption was very important as the government depended on the public to alert them on any instance of corrupt practices that might affect them.
Dr Mahathir said at the same time, the public had to be aware that corruption was a crime and they had to avoid corrupt acts, like trying to bribe officials in order to get approvals for something they wanted.
“This is our hope that the whole country will be dedicated in fighting corruption.”
“This means we must have high standards in our value system, we must reject corruption as a crime which benefits no one. We hope with public showing their interest in fighting corruption, and with the government officers and machinery cleaned up, it will result in reducing corruption if not eliminate it altogether,” he said.
The Prime Minister said since Pakatan Harapan came into power following the dramatic election victory in the May 9 general election, his government had promised to fight corruption and put in place rules to combat the malaise.
He said in upholding the separation of powers among the legislature, executive and judiciary, and in eradicating corruption, the government would also ensure that the three bodies would keep one another in check.
The Prime Minister believed that government efforts in fighting corruption had started to bear result as there had been no reports of corruption cases involving the new government and its machinery.
“Up to the moment we have not found any corruption allegation and accusation prevalent as in the previous government. Maybe that is a good sign, (that) we have succeeded in telling the people to avoid corruption,” he added.
Speaking to reporters later, Dr Mahathir said the people had done away with the attitude of depending on government aid that had been promoted by the previous government.
“Unfortunately, the previous government policy had affected the people in the sense they had become dependent on the government, depended on free money to be given, (and) not working to earn any income for themselves.
“We have tried to change this government-dependence mentality. But of course it is not easy. They have been receiving money and now we have to stop it but if (it is) stopped suddenly they will get into trouble. So we have to slowly eliminate this form of bribing,” he said.
Themed “Good Governance and Integrity for Sustainable Business Growth” the one-day event was organised by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M)
It attracted some 500 participants and a list of local and international speakers including TI-M President Datuk Akhbar Satar, Immigration Department Director-General Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali, former Petro Saudi employee Xavier Andre Justo and Anti-Corruption Advisor UNODC - South East Asia and Pacific Francesco Checchi. – Bernama