PETALING JAYA, JULY 10- Contrary to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim who does not want his state exco to declare their assets, DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng wants Selangor state excos and state legislative assembly speaker to declare their assets.
“DAP will direct its three Selangor state exco members and Selangor state speaker to publicly declare their personal assets,” said Lim who is also Penang Chief Minister and Bagan MP in a press statement.
He added that the date for the asset declaration will be decided during the party’s central executive committee meeting next week.
He said that the asset declaration was part of an exercise for the DAP to adhere to a minimal set of integrity.
DAP’s three state excos are Teng Chang Khim, Ean Yong Hian Wah and V Ganabatirao. The speaker is Hannah Yeoh. Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said yesterday that his exco members need not declare assets because some exco members feared for their personal and family safety Responding to this, Lim Guan Eng who is also Penang Chief Minister and Bagan MP said: “DAP respectfully disagrees with Khalid’s reasoning as this is what BN had relied on as an excuse in refusing to publicly declare their assets.
“Despite this disagreement with Khalid, DAP will not impose its views on the Selangor state government.
“When the Penang PR state government became the first state government in Malaysia to publicly declare the assets of the Chief Minister and all its exco members, neither exco member nor their families’ personal safety was threatened,” he said.
Lim also criticised former Transparency International – Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Low who had initiated asset declaration via integrity pledge before GE13 but supported BN’s position of not declaring their assets.
Low is currently Minister in Prime Minister’s Department. “Low had supported BN’s position by not requiring any public declaration of assets in TI-M’s Integrity Pledge for the recent general elections.
“DAP had never understood why TI-M and Paul Low refused to require a public declaration of assets by government leaders which is against TI-M’s basic principles internationally until Paul Low accepted appointment as a Cabinet member.
“To date Paul Low had refused to adopt DAP’s proposal of a public declaration of assets by BN Ministers and State EXCO members,” said Lim
