TAN Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas isn't just a member of Umno's disciplinary board. He is also Malaysian Institute for Corporate Governance (MICG) president, and former Transparency International (Malaysia) executive council member.Megat Najmuddin has been outspoken about corruption, even describing political corruption as "the mother of all corruptions".
Several Umno leaders under probe (Update)
KUALA LUMPUR: Several Umno leaders are being investigated for money politics in the run-up to the general assembly last week, said Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas, a member of the party’s disciplinary board.
He said the probe was being carried out by officers of the board’s investigation unit.
“I don’t have the details but I was made to understand that there are indeed investigations being carried out on a number of cases, including top posts,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after tabling a working paper at the “Anti-Corruption Summit Zero Tolerance for Corruption” event organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute and Transparency International Malaysia here.
Megat Najmuddin said he was not directly involved in the investigation because board members cannot be the investigators, prosecutors and jurists at the same time.
He said action would be taken against anyone found to have breached party discipline.
“If we have proof we will call them to testify but we need strong evidence, otherwise it would be difficult for us to act,” he said.
He also said that there was nothing wrong with treating a person to a meal or paying for someone’s fuel as long as there was no ulterior motives in doing so.
“The amount of the bribe is not important. The measure of culpability lies in the intention. If you give RM50 to buy votes, it is political corruption or money politics,” he said.
Megat Najmuddin also welcome Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s proposal to restructure the Umno disciplinary board to strengthen it further.
“This is a good suggestion as we don’t have enough manpower. Umno is a big party with over three million members, so we need to increase our capacity accordingly,” he said.Mother of all corruptions
Earlier when tabling his working paper titled Conflicts of Interest: The Latent Part of Corruption, Megat Najmuddin said it was important that the board was free of interference from party leaders.
“We have retired from politics and we have no more interest in it. At a meeting with the powers-that-be in the party, we told them that if you interfere, we will resign en bloc,” he said.
Describing political corruption as “the mother of all corruptions,” Megat Najmuddin said the people could still take comfort from the fact that corruption at the moment was “only a fact of life and not a way of life.”
He outlined five aspects needed to combat corruption, namely better enforcement, better pay for government servants, less bureaucracy, transparency in political funding, and continuous anti-corruption education.
He said that being the adviser to several universities, he found that corrupt practices were also taking place in institutions of higher learning.
“These include plagiarism, and in awarding contracts,” he said, adding that the trend was a cause for concern at a time when universities were heading towards greater autonomy. -- Bernama
Buanasuara:
"Excuse me Sir! What happened to the investigation regarding UMNO Bahagian Tanah Merah?"
"Where has the Investigation Paper gone to? Waste paper basket?"
"Bundles and bundles of documents including photos describing the misconduct of Ikmal Hisham have been sent to the board. But the culprit still enjoying the freedom"
"The investigators's team lead by Tan Sri Abu Zahar has conducted professionally, we believed he has done a good job"
"Where are the Prosecutors?Where are the Jurists?What happened to them?"
OR
"Everybody has resigned as per your statement below" OR "They are the children from 'the mother of all corruptions?"
“We have retired from politics and we have no more interest in it. At a meeting with the powers-that-be in the party, we told them that if you interfere, we will resign en bloc,” he said.
GOD BLESS YOU.
