GE 13 : Corruption: Stay the Course or Go Back to Square One?

A big challenge for politicians in the war on corruption is how to empower those involved without interfering in the process. After all, bodies such as the MACC investigate politicians and need to be free to do so.
That's one of the reasons why tackling corruption is a slow process and something of a juggling act. Governments need to facilitate the process without hindering it in any way.
Since GE12, the present Government has has done much to boost the power and independence of our main corruption fighting body while keeping a healthy distance from its investigations. It has, among other things, upgraded the post of MACC chief commissioner and has allowed the MACC Service Commission to hire and manage its own staff.
The MACC is now more independent than it has ever been and answers only to a Parliamentary Committee consisting of MPs from all parties.
This is important because on the eve of GE13, the manifestos of both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat highlight issue of politics and corruption fighting. Pakatan Rakyat's document proposes a corruption policy called DEBARAN of which voters know very little – surprising, considering the same document places corruption "at the centre of Patakan Rakyat's struggle".
DEBARAN is a policy document (not an agency) which means it would be administered by the Pakatan Rakyat government and will, in the words of the manifesto, be used to "restructure MACC's power and leadership" and "restructure the practices and processes of MACC".
If the alarm bells aren't ringing yet, then they should be. DEBARAN comes with considerable risk of political interference from above at a time when the MACC has never been more empowered and independent.
But it's not just the fact that Pakatan risks politicising the corruption fight at a time when the present Government is putting more distance between politicians and the MACC. It is the fact that Pakatan risks taking our anti-corruption efforts back to square one, with its manifesto pledge to "rebuild" MACC trust at a time when the edifice is standing tall and strong.
The MACC is just one part of the Government's crackdown on corruption. In its next term BN promises to target bribe payers as much as the bribe receiver, which is bad news for the crooked property developer who has long thought nobody would come after him. Beyond May 5th he might think about hiding under his bed.
Corporate anti-corruption measures mean the companies are responsible for the corrupt acts of their staff, which is a shrill warning that we have a shared duty to conduct business in a clean and transparent manner.
The BN manifesto also ensures transparency in Government procurement and disclosure of contract details. How we would all love to know the details of Lim Guan Eng's Penang mega-project contracts, the result of a hasty tender process. They were awarded to a single company, which not only gets to build the undersea tunnel and three highways, but also conducts the Environmental Impact Assessment.
Under BN both companies and politicians are being asked to sign integrity pledges, something Pakatan MPs have breezily dismissed as a PR exercise – which it isn't. Making those in power publicly declare where they stand is very much part of the process.
At GE13 the choice for voters is this: Stay the course under BN at a time when the anti-corruption process is achieving traction or go back to square one with Pakatan's politicised regime and unnecessary "rebuild".
As Najib has put it: "Why put everything at risk?" That risk is voting Pakatan Rakyat.