THE Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has launched an interactive website dubbed “Kleptocrazy Malaysia” to promote citizen journalism in Malaysia.

Cynthia Gabriel, executive director for C4, said the website aims to provide a platform for citizens to track down and report the unexplained wealth of public officials and politicians in public office.

“In the next general election, we want people to vote politicians with integrity. Next, we want to crack down on politicians with unexplained wealth,” she said in the Kleptocrazy Malaysia: Declare your assets now! forum at Petaling Jaya last night.

Cynthia said that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission’s (MACC) limitation is that they need someone to file a report before starting an investigation.

She also commended MACC Chief Commissioner, Dzulkifli Ahmad for tackling high profile cases.

“Many of these (high profile) cases point to years of entrenched and systemic corruption and abuse of power, with misappropriation involving millions of ringgit,” she said.

She, however, said MACC should also address the 1MDB scandal to fully gain public trust.

She said C4 are willing to work with all political parties for assets declaration and reporting of unexplained wealth of civil servants and politicians.

“We are ready to work with all political parties and with federal agencies together with the MACC to push this framework forward,” she said.

The website, kleptocrazy.my allows the public to post pictures of wealthy public officials and their families onto the website that will allow MACC to then determine if there are cases that need further verification and investigation.

“It is Malaysians who are the best check and balance mechanism that is needed to keep our political leaders to account,” Cynthia said. – May 13, 2017.