THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s plan to set up operation rooms during the election should not be a publicity stunt, said an anti-graft group. 

Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) director Cynthia Gabriel said it was concerned that if the centres were poorly publicised or underutilised by the public, the effort might turn into a mere publicity stunt.

“The operation rooms are (an) extremely welcome move by the MACC towards building institutions that prevent electoral malpractice. MACC’s plans for the next elections are what Malaysia sorely deserves, but steps need to be taken to ensure that civil society (groups) can fully utilise the planned 24-hour operation centres for the next general elections.

“However, we are concerned that if the centres are poorly publicised and underutilised by the public, the efforts may be in danger of turning into a mere publicity stunt,” Cynthia said in a statement today.

C4 said MACC chief Dzulkifli Ahmad had on Tuesday revealed plans to establish 24-hour election operation rooms in each state

to accept reports of violations of the Elections Act and the MACC Act

She said these operation centres would useful to citizen monitoring groups, like PEMANTAU, which was formed as a watchdog for the 14th general election.

Cynthia also urged MACC to publish a list of malpractices for the public to identify rather than just waiting for formal reports.

“Before this, there was hardly any direct cooperation with existing good governance civil society groups to programmatically observe, document or report abuse of power and money politics during elections.

“We see this as a key opportunity to engage as a whole-of-systems approach in the fight against corruption,” Cynthia said.

She said C4’s report, The Roles and Functions of the EC and MACC in Addressing Corrupt Practices at Elections, documented cases of money politics being used to win votes, which could be considered as bribery.

“Meanwhile, C4 has reached out to several state MACC offices, and hopes to receive a positive reply soon on further cooperation.” – January 4, 2018.