by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, February 13, 1994:
Is Anwar Ibrahim prepared to pledge that if Barisan Nasional topples the PBS Government, all Barisan Nasional leaders of the new Sabah State Government would publicly declare their assets?
Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, yesterday called on the Sabahans to reject corrupt leaders.
Is Datuk Anwar Ibrahim prepared to make this call his campaign theme in the forthcoming national general elections in Peninsular- Malaysia and subject all national leaders to public scrutiny as to their integrity and financial probity?
Even for Sabah, is Anwar Ibrahim prepared to pledge that if Barisan Nasional topples the PBS Government in the Sabah stats general elections, all Barisan Nasional leaders of the new Sabah State Government, from Chief Minister to State Ministers and all Barisan Nasional Assemblymen would publicly declare their assets on an annual basis?
It is only when Anwar Ibrahim is prepared to make such a pledge that he could be seen as serious in making corruption a major theme of the Barisan Nasional elections campaign in Sabah.
Furthermore, is Anwar Ibrahim prepared to make another pledge to give the Anti-Corruption Agency full powers to eradicate corruption and to prosecute powerful Barisan Nasional lead¬ers for corruption without having to get ‘green-light’ from the government?
The Federal Government has so far refused to consider the proposals submitted by the ACA for a new comprehensive law to fight corruption, replacing all the existing anti-corruption laws which are inadequate and full of loopholes.
Can Anwar Ibrahim promise that, in the new Parliamentary meeting beginning on April 11, the Federal Government would table the ACA’s draft for new and comprehensive anti-corruption law, so as to give ‘teeth’ to the ACA in the campaign against corruption especially against those in high political and govern ment places?
I had proposed to Anwar Ibrahim that the Government should declare Corruption as the Public Enemy No. 1 and 1994 as the Year Against Corruption.
However, Anwar Ibrahim seems to be confining his ‘war against corruption’ to Sabah, excluding Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.
Since the dissolution of the Sabah state assembly, Anwar Ibrahim has not only neglected his duties as Deputy Prime Minister, he seems to have forgotten that he is Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia in focussing only on the problem of corruption in Sabah but not the whole of Malaysia.