Guan Eng: BN must drop leaders with lavish lifestyes

DAP is proposing six steps to fight corruption, declared DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng who added that BN had failed in all these areas.

Speaking at the DAP Malacca state annual convention today, he said the first step was to institutionalise the public declaration of assets.

"This has been done in Penang where the chief minister and the entire state exco has made a public declaration of assets that has even been certified by an international accounting firm," the MP for Bagan pointed out.


The second step was that BN leaders with extravagant lifestyles, owning luxury homes, cars and huge personal bank accounts in foreign countries, must be dropped.

He said Malaysians were disappointed that the prime minister had rejected outright the allegations of extraordinary wealth of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

Taib's former daughter-in-law, Mahmud Shahnaz Abdul Majid, had recently revealed that Taib's son charged RM782,520.55 to just one of his credit cards for the first six months of this year.

Shahnaz is claiming RM400 million in their divorce settlement in the Syariah courts as her husband is reputedly worth RM1 billion with RM700 million of deposits in 111 bank accounts in local foreign countries.


Another case he pointed out, was the extravagant lifestyle of Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam, in which 130,000 guests were feted in an extravagant record-breaking celebration in Malaysia.

Until today Ali Rustam has failed to explain who sponsored such a lavish wedding.


He added that step three was that family members must be barred from being involved in government business. "This is to avoid another RM250 million ‘cows and condos' scandal," he noted.

In Step four, he said genuine whistleblowers who expose corruption cases leading to charges in court must be protected instead of being persecuted.


For step five, BN must come clean on political donations such as the RM40 million political donation to Sabah Umno.

Guan Eng said Malaysians were disappointed that the premier considered the huge donation to Umno Sabah as proper and appropriate.

Six, open competitive tenders must be implemented. "Without open competitive tenders, public projects are directly negotiated and awarded to cronies causing loss of public revenue such as the cheap sale of the Sungai Besi Air Force Base land," he said.

Guan Eng also pointed at the RM240 million spent on the Malacca Airport which he said was grossly under-utilised.

He also asked if the RM386 million for 57 KR1M stores in Sabah and Sarawak, or RM6.7 million per store, were justified.


"Are they selling basic necessities like sugar, salt and rice or luxury items like jewelry and designer handbags?" he queried.