On 22 August, the Kuching High Court declared SUPP/BN MP for Bandar Kuching Song Swee Guan (also Padungan State Assemblyman and Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Speaker) a bankrupt.
Song's bankruptcy highlights the inadequacy of the present system of financial accountability and transparency among politicians, senior public servants and judges in Malaysia. Presently, all Barisan Nasional politicians only declare their assets to the Prime Minister. Presumably, opposition politicians do the same to their respective party chiefs.
But this system is far from satisfactory. Aliran has always called upon those who aspire for office to declare their assets publicly and upon those elected to update those declarations annually.
How is it possible for Song, who held three salaried positions, to be declared a bankrupt? In the last parliament, Song also held three salaried positions: Kuching MP, Padungan state seat representative, and Kuching City South Mayor. What is it about Song's lifestyle and his financial dealings that led him into this impasse?
Aliran feels that Song, as an elected representative, should come clean and explain his situation publicly. Apparently he was involved in business while he claimed three salaries. And apparently his bankruptcy is a result of his business dealings going bust. If so, how long have these problems been festering? Was Song already in trouble before the November 1999 elections? Why then did SUPP/BN re-nominate him? Or are his problems of recent origin? The electorate has a right to know.
Aliran is concerned that the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) plans to raise funds from among supporters to bail out Song. Unless the public is informed about the reasons for Song's bankruptcy, there should be no bailout using funds raised from the public.
Like in the peninsula, there is too much patronage, shady-dealings, and overlap between politics and business in Sarawak. A lot is hidden from public scrutiny. This aversion to accountability and transparency among our elected representatives only breeds unhealthy ties between businessmen and politicians and encourages corruption.
Ironically, in the aftermath of the 1997 High Court decision that declared void the BN victory in the Bukit Begunan state seat in 1996 on account of "massive vote-buying", SUPP President and Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Dr. George Chan said "money politics was very obvious and had infected the state."
Aliran is thus disappointed that Dr. Chan has yet to heed his own words and start wiping out money politics within his own party, let alone Sarawak.
As for Song and SUPP, the only honourable choice for him is to immediately resign from all his seats. This time, Aliran calls on the electorate of Kuching and Padungan to insist that all electoral candidates first declare their assets in all daily newspapers before elections.
Anil Netto
Executive Committee
1 September 2000