KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6: Asset declaration requirements should apply to all Members of Parliament (MPs), and without any conditions, says the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center).
As asset declaration is a vital aspect of clean and transparent governance and a crucial way in which politicians, as representatives of the electorate, can be held accountable and be subject to public inquiry should there be unjustified or disproportionate wealth in their possession, it should come with no conditions, the C4 Center said in a press statement today.
On Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief whip Takiyuddin Hassan’s recent criticism of the government for having set asset declaration requirement as among the conditions for the opposition MPs to receive financial allocations for their constituencies, on the basis that they were not part of the government administration, C4 Center said that while the Government should not be using asset declaration as a bargaining chip, PN on the other hand, cannot pretend it is an unfairly maligned party in these events.
“Takiyuddin Hassan questions the practice of imposing an asset declaration obligation, stating that it was normally only applicable to members of the government administration. This aversion towards asset declaration demonstrates their own belief that as members of the opposition, they are somehow exempt from those principles. It must be stated in the strongest of terms that this is a fundamentally mistaken and flawed belief. Transparency is not a qualified obligation based on formalised notions of who holds power and who does not — the selective application of transparency obligations is ultimately a failure of good governance.”
“Asset declaration should be undertaken by all MPs, regardless of party affiliation, to revive public trust in our parliamentary process as a whole.
“In principle, politicians must not use their office for personal gain or the accumulation of wealth for their political parties’ interests.”
On the government using asset declaration for its bargaining, C4 Center said it undermined the governance principles.
“Far from being a non-negotiable process that all individuals who enter politics must undertake, it is now being used as a symbolic demonstration of “loyalty” to the current administration. Even worse, that loyalty is rewarded through funding for opposition constituencies.
“A more serious question subsequently arises: why have unambiguous demands for asset declaration been made against the opposition if the government has not yet imposed those same obligations upon themselves? If the government truly believes in the effectiveness and need for asset declaration, why has the process not been formalised in law for all MPs? The evidence pointing towards asset declaration here being employed cynically to score political points against the opposition is even harder to deny. The only way in which a demand by the government for the opposition to declare their assets can be principally justified and viewed in good faith is if all government MPs also declare their assets as a precondition to enter into the MOU.
“Furthermore, how does the government expect the opposition to declare their assets outside of a regulated framework? The government certainly believes that an optimal framework exists as they have been studying its constitution and implementation since the start of 2024, so asset declarations falling short of that would necessarily be seen as inadequate or insufficient for the purposes of transparency. On the other hand, if the government already has a structure of asset declaration in mind that would be imposed upon members of the opposition for this MOU, it begs further questions as to why that structure cannot be equally introduced across the board for all MPs and made enforceable in law, or at least be publicly announced?”
Is there a future for a mandatory asset declaration law?
The past few years has witnessed a serious decline in the possibility of introducing a mandatory asset declaration law for MPs, C4 Center said.
“After GE14 in 2018, the Pakatan Harapan government introduced the National Anti-Corruption Plan 2018-2023 (NACP), under which a mandatory asset declaration framework for all MPs formed a strategic goal. However, during the mid-term review in 2021, initiative 1.2.9 of the NACP was amended from, “To introduce a written law on the declaration of asset and interest by Members of Parliament” to initiative 1.2.6, “To undertake a study on the viability of a written law on asset declaration by Members of the Administration and Members of Parliament”.
“Subsequently, earlier this year, the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2024-2028 (NACS) replaced the NACP. Strikingly, any mention of an asset declaration law is absent from the NACS, including under the appendix titled “NACP Initiatives That Could Not Be Completed as of December 2023”. Instead, the NACS only makes mention of introducing a interest and gift declaration mechanism under Sub-strategy 2.12, “To introduce a mechanism for declaration of interest and gift by members of the administration and members of Parliament.”
“While it was reported earlier this year that a Special Cabinet Committee on National Governance had agreed to introduce a new asset declaration framework for MPs and members of the federal administration, there have been few updates as to its progress. Furthermore, as a mere framework, it is likely that asset declaration will not be mandatory and lead to the same discrepancies of transparency amongst MPs observed currently. With the evident willingness of the current government to use asset declaration requirements as a bargaining chip for political manoeuvres, renewed calls for an asset declaration law for all MPs must be made.”
— WE