Lim: Sabah budget is 'cronies' enrichment programme'

Image via WikipediaBy Queville To

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Musa Aman's 'timely' announcement of a special allocation of RM1 million to each Barisan Nasional representatives in Sabah next year has been described as a "form of political corruption".

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said Musa's announcement – under the state budget - warrants Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) attention and investigation.

“It is a political corruption to allocate RM1 million public funds to the BN constituencies alone. It is clearly an election budget to boost the winning chances of BN in the next general election and not for the benefit of the people. It is to be used to buy votes,” Lim charged.

Malaysia is the worst country in Asia-Pacific in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in past 16 years since the start of the annual ranking in 1995

Malaysia is the worst country in Asia-Pacific in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in past 16 years since the start of the annual ranking in 1995

Despite the “1Malaysia People First Performance Now” slogan and the alphabet soup of GTP, NKRA, MKRA, SRIs, ETP etc and one Roadmap after another of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the National Integrity Plan of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia is the worst country in the Asia-Pacific in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in past 16 years since the start of the annual ranking in 1995.

In the first TI CPI in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries or the 6th highest-ranked nation after New Zealand -1, Singapore – 3, Australia – 7, Hong Kong – 17 and Japan – 20, with a CPI score of 5.28.