PETALING JAYA: PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (pic) has come under fire for his controversial remarks that declaring assets was unIslamic.
Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel said the refusal to declare assets went against democratic principles.
“The attitude of Opposition MPs (towards the asset declaration) is an embarrassment and opposes democratic principles.
“We insist that in a democratic country, the rakyat has the right to know and get relevant information about the wealth owned by their elected representatives to make sure they are serving with trustworthiness, honesty and integrity.
“Opposition MPs should support the asset declaration and stop using religion to ‘protect’ them from being monitored by the rakyat,” she said in a statement on Tuesday (July 2).
She added that the asset declaration would be a good step towards introducing legal provisions to allow the use of unexplained wealth as a basis for an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Currently, she added, the laws allowing MACC to probe into unexplained wealth are limited as it has to be associated with a crime that was being investigated under the MACC Act 2009.
Datuk Noor Farida Mohd Ariffin of the Group of 25 Eminent Malays (G25) said that Tuan Ibrahim’s remarks were “disgusting”.
“PAS should not distort Islamic teachings to suit their own political agenda.
“Corruption and robbery of public funds are totally against Islam. So why should declaring assets be against Islam?
“We want our politicians to be above board and honouring integrity,” she said when contacted.
Earlier, Tuan Ibrahim defended his remarks that it is un-Islamic to declare assets.
"I have checked the authenticity of the hadith and although there are differing views among the ulama, they accept it as an authentic hadith," he told reporters at Parliament lobby on Tuesday.
Despite differing views, he said that PAS only accepted the mainstream interpretation of the hadith.
He denied that PAS was using religion with regard to the issue and said the party only uses it as a guideline.
However, he said that PAS had no problems for its lawmakers to declare their assets.
The only issue, he noted, was the manner in which it is being done.
"It is only a motion that does not require two-thirds majority votes.
"Why not make it a law instead of a motion?" he asked.
