#RasuahBusters and MPs join hands in fight against corruption

KUALA LUMPUR - Political parties join hands with #RasuahBusters to combat corruption in the nation.

Tumpat MP Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi said the focus of the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group-Integrity, Governance and Anti Corruption (APPG) was to ensure systematic and legislative changes in Malaysia through a combination of parliamentarians, senators, civil society and experts in related fields.

"APPG focuses on the independence of judicial institutions, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Election Commission (EC) and separates the role of the Attorney General (AG) from the role of the Public Prosecutor.

"The improvement of the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 is also one of the focuses of APPG in this effort.

"APPG also proposed the establishment of the Dewan Rakyat Permanent Select Committee for MACC and EC," he said in a press conference at the Parliament today.

Che Abdullah also said that one should not give up creating awareness and fighting corruption despite the country's political interference.

"We should not easily give up and I believe this will be a continuous move," he told Sinar Daily.

Meanwhile, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said one of the advantages of the committee was the appearance of civil society, which lends their expertise.

"One of the advantages of this committee is the fact that civil society is together with us, so they lend their expertise in this topic.

"Moreover, the awareness is created in a fight against corruption where we have the civil society together with lawmakers to push this agenda forward," she said.

Apart from Che Abdullah (President) and Hannah Yeoh (Deputy President), members of APPG comprised eight in total, namely Fuziah Salleh (Secretary) and Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah (Treasurer).

The other members were Penampang MP Datuk Ignatius Darrel Leiking, Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni, Hulu Langat MP Datuk Husanuddin Mohd Yunus, Yayasan Sinar Untuk Malaysia #RasuahBusters, Transparency International Malaysia, Institute Demokrasi dan Hal Ehwal Ekonomi (IDEAS), Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), PATRIOT and UNDI 18.

Commenting further, Darrel insisted that APPG should be given the power to provide recommendation to MACC and AG office in order to prevent corruption.

"We heard many cases that have been dropped such as the water department scandal case and these are the things that we should overcome.

"We hope that we will be given the power to reduce corruption and go straight to obvious cases of corruption.

"I guess we have to look on how to make the country shine again and trust our system," he said.

Adding on, Hassanuddin pitched his thought of how MPs and non-government organisations (NGO) could work together to combat the corruption which showed a good sign for the country.

On Aug 23, the Dewan Rakyat approved the establishment of APPG.

The membership of APPG consisted of eight MPs from the government and the opposition was chaired by Datuk Che Abdullah.