KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 3): The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) and several non-governmental organisations have commended the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for its progress in investigating allegations of possible misappropriation of funds for the Covid-19 stimulus package.

This follows the MACC's freezing of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia's (Bersatu) bank accounts as part of the agency's investigation into the alleged misappropriation of RM600 billion in funds used by the government - under the administration of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Bersatu president and chairman of the Perikatan Nasional - when the country was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“However, we are concerned over the long-standing perception of selective investigations on opposition parties. We call [on] the government and political parties to work seriously towards institutional reforms for greater independence of the MACC and more transparent financing of political parties,” said Ideas and the endorsing organisations in a statement.

The endorsing organisations are Advancing Knowledge in Democracy and Law Initiative, Agora Society, Bait Al Amanah, BERSIH, Engage Network, RasuahBusters, and TI Malaysia.

In addition, declaring funding sources would reduce the possibilities of political parties obtaining funds from illegal means such as misappropriation of public funds, bribery, or money laundering. Hence, they recommend public funding as a means of curbing political corruption, whereby the government provides funds to political parties based on a set formula.

This will consequently reduce over-reliance on private sector money and the conflicts of interest that may arise from it, they said.

Further, MACC’s independence needs to improve as well, as this would reduce the public’s perception that the agency is being abused for political purposes.

“We would also like to remind the government that the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) that was launched in 2019 targeted to introduce a political financing legislation by the end of 2020 and have a separate parliamentary select committee for the MACC by the end of 2023. This commitment was made by a coalition government that consisted of parties that are part of the current government. Both targets were unfortunately removed when the NACP underwent a mid-term review in 2021. They must be reinstated if the current government is serious about making the MACC more independent,” they said.

“The government should [also] be more cognisant of how it navigates the fragile public trust in institutions. The recently published 2022 CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) score which suggests a deterioration in Malaysia’s performance in eradicating corruption - having fallen six points over the last three years - should prompt the government to restart the efforts to work on these two key reform areas immediately. As the NACP will expire at the end of this year, it is now more crucial than ever for the government to show political willingness to enact change,” they added.

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