Urgent priority for MACC and AG's Chambers to conduct course on corruption for government leaders and top government officers

On the way to Yong Peng from Kuala Lumpur tonight, I came across the news report that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General's Chambers will hold a course on avoiding corruption for parliamentarians next year.

The Pemandu director D Ravindran, who is in charge of the anti-corruption section of the National Key Results Areas (NKRA), is quoted as saying:

"The Government Transformation Plan 2.0 (GTP 2.0) has the commitment of both the MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamad and the AG (Abdul Gani Patail), who will both be conducting the course for our lawmakers.

"So, for the first time, we are going to teach our parliamentarians what is right to take and what is not right to take."

Speaking on the sidelines of the launching of the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index 2012, Ravindran said the course would include information on what constitutes corruption, and the codes of conduct and best practices to avoid it.

The MACC and the AG's Chamber should not be barking up the wrong trees as they should know where the priorities in fighting corruption, especially grand corruption, should lie.

Let me tell MACC and the AG's Chambers that the urgent priority in the battle against graft in Malaysia is for MACC and AG's Chambers to conduct a course on corruption for the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers particularly Sarawak and Sabah as well as top government officers including the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail himself, if Malaysia is serious in its war against "grand corruption".

It would appear that many of these top political and government leaders do not know "what is right to take and what is not right to take", which is why there are so many allegations of abuses of power, malpractices and even corruption against them which had not been responded fully and satisfactorily, whether it be the scandal of the RM40 million "political donation to Sabah UMNO" implicating the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman or the extraordinary wealth and assets of the family of the Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Taib Mahmud amounting to RM64 billion after 30 years as Sarawak Chief Minister as alleged by the Bruno Manser Foundation recently.

Dare the MACC and AG's Chambers conduct a course not only on avoiding corruption for the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers particularly from Sarawak and Sabah, and top government officials, but also on their responsibility to account fully and satisfactorily when serious corruption allegations are publicly made against them, including clearing their names and establishing their reputation in the courts of law?