Pak Lah fails to get cabinet members to declare assets

KUALA LUMPUR- He may have been successful in pushing through several important pieces of legislation but Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has been an abject failure in persuading his ministers, deputy ministers and their family members to declare their assets.

A few days after the March 8 general elections, the prime minister, reeling from the serious setback suffered by the Barisan Nasional and aware that he needed to snatch the news cycle from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the resurgent Pakatan Rakyat, announced that all members of the Cabinet, deputy ministers must fill up asset declaration forms by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Following this, the ACA announced that the information on asset declaration would be made available online so that members of public can scrutinize the information.

But sources have told the Malaysian Insider that the plan has faced stiff resistance from several ministers, who did not want the veil to be lifted on assets owned by family members.

A government official said: "There were strong objections from ministers who felt that it would be an invasion of privacy for the public to know what the financial worth of their spouses, brothers and sisters.

"Several of them were prepared to step down from the Cabinet rather than submit to this asset declaration."

Faced with this wall of resistance, Abdullah backed off. As a result, this plan to make the government more transparent appears headed for nowhere.

To be sure, even the Pakatan Rakyat-run states have not been able to make good its promises of listing down assets owned by its elected representatives. (TheMalaysianInsider)