Tunku Aziz on Corruption......

Well said Tunku Aziz. If Singapore can do it, why can't we Malaysian?

Tunku Aziz to continue anti-corruption fight as politician

KUALA LUMPUR, wed:
Malaysia’s most prominent anti-corruption and good governance activist, Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, raised many eyebrows recently when he announced his new role as a politician by joining the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP).

And in an unprecedented move, the DAP instantly appointed him a vice-chairman.

DAP founder and now advisor Lim Kit Siang in welcoming Tunku Aziz to the party said:

“For more than a decade he has been an icon of integrity and transparency from the sidelines. His joining DAP is a boost in our efforts for a more broad-based and representative party”

In a wide-ranging interview with Bernama here, Tunku Aziz echoed Lim’s sentiment, saying that being in the party’s policy-making body now would enable him to make the DAP a more Malaysian organisation so that it was not seen as just a “Chinese party in disguise”.

“If you want to be a Malaysian party, let’s be a truly Malaysian party in our outlook, sentiment, loyalty and our patriotism. I don’t believe that communal parties really have a future in Malaysia,”

he said.

Tunku Aziz, 74, had a distinguished career in the corporate sector before being actively involved in Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption.

He has written and spoken widely on corruption and integrity issues both domestically and internationally and published his book, “Fighting Corruption: My Mission”. He also served at the World Bank and in 2006 was invited to establish the United Nations Ethics Office as a Special Advisor to then secretary-general Kofi Annan.
In the interview, Tunku Aziz spoke of his zest to continue speaking out against corruption, saying:

“There is nothing more important for a country and its systems and institutions than to be seen to be practising good governance”.

And he warned:

“We have seen many countries fall or destroyed by corruption.

Corruption will dismantle us, in fact corruption has dismantled many empires.

The fall of empires of the past was due to corruption”.

Tunku Aziz spoke of Singapore’s successful war against corruption and the lessons other countries can learn from the island nation.

He said that in Singapore’s case, it was the will of one man, Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister and now Minister Mentor, against corruption.

“Before Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore was a very corrupt society but he was able to turn it around and make it into an island of integrity.

“He may not win prizes for human rights but if there were a world prize just for fighting corruption, Lee Kuan Yew is the clear winner,”

Tunku Aziz said.

He said it was all about leadership by example because people down the line took the cue from their elected leaders.

“That’s what one man has been able to do. We have not been able to do it here in Malaysia because we set our sights far too low. We should be etting our sights high in the fight against corruption,”

he said. (Azman Ujang, BERNAMA)