Wednesday August 1, 2007
Raja Nazrin: People with shady past should not be allowed to take office
KUALA LUMPUR: People with a chequered past or clear evidence of questionable morality should be prevented from taking office, the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, said last night.
He said this was integral to good governance, one of the three major themes of the works of the late Prof Datuk Dr Syed Hussein Alatas, a renowned sociologist and intellectual.
“Figures in authority must be chosen for their integrity first and qualifications second,” he said in his inaugural lecture to commemorate the legacy of Dr Syed Hussein entitled Towards a Decent Social Order for All Malaysians.
He said the battle against corruption had always been the top priority of Dr Syed Hussein who published four books on the topic as early as in 1968.
Raja Nazrin said corruption was mankind’s most deadly social disease as it could undermine good governance, weaken institutional foundations, distort public policies, compromise the rule of law and constrain the economy.
He said corruption curbed competitiveness to the detriment of economic and social developments, would lead to tremendous misallocation of resources and make cost of doing business to become unacceptably high.
“Corruption exists because of man’s enduring desire for personal gains. Once corruption becomes widespread, it will no longer seem immoral and unlawful, just business as usual,” he added.
He said there must be concrete anti-corruption measures and management practices based on efficiency, transparency and accountability.
He said the mobilisation of public opinion was also an integral part of good governance as Dr Syed Hussein placed great emphasis in the power of public outrage.
Raja Nazrin said Dr Syed Hussein believed that if society’s consciousness was awakened to the ills of corruption and gave its cases widespread publicity, it would generate such adverse reaction that the government would be forced to take action.
The lecture was the first of the Albukhary Foundation Lecture Series. – Bernama
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