MACC: No need to invite Penang to sign pledge

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no need for Penang to be “invited” to sign the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) corruption-free pledge when other states signed up voluntarily.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad said he did not understand why Penang needed to be an exception.

“I don’t know why (Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng said there needs to be an invitation. Hebat betul Penang ini ... (This Penang is really ‘great’).

“I am puzzled. Anyway, it’s up to him whether he wants to do it or not. He doesn’t have to give excu­ses.

“We can do it if he wants to. If not, that’s all right, too,” he told reporters after the nationwide police corruption-free pledge here yesterday.

“Like the pledge made by the police today, we didn’t ask them to sign, (Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri) Khalid (Abu Bakar) himself came and contacted me, saying the police wanted to sign,” added Dzulkifli.

He said there was no point in making it compulsory as this would not portray the sincerity of an agency or state, adding that the public would not be convinced.

On July 15, Dzulkifli said the Penang government’s CAT (competency, accountability and transpa­rency) slogan would be meaningless if it continued to resist signing the pledge.

Both Opposition-led Penang and Selangor are the only states that have yet to sign the pledge as even PAS-led Kelantan is expected to sign it soon.

On Thursday, Lim denied that the state government had refused to sign, saying that the MACC never contacted it do to so.

Wong Hon Wai, political secretary to Lim, said Dzulkifli’s statement confirmed that the anti-graft body had not written a letter to the Penang government on the pledge.