THE battle against corruption is harder today than it was back in the day, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. 

“When I came into power in 1981, it was clean as clean – as it could be. It’s much harder now as it has affected the government machinery,” he said at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters in Putrajaya today.

Speaking to reporters after delivering his keynote message, the 93-year-old said even if government officers were suspected to be corrupt, it was hard to terminate them.

“Now, we have to select and filter before we take action.

“And just on suspicion alone, we cannot terminate all of them or we wouldn’t have the machinery to carry out our instructions.” 

Dr Mahathir joined about 160 government administration officers and ministers for a briefing on governance, integrity and corruption in Putrajaya this morning.

The closed-door briefing at 9.30am was also attended by political secretaries and almost all Pakatan Harapan MPs.

It was led by National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) chairman Abu Kassim Mohamed and MACC chief Mohd Shukri Abdull.

The briefing touched on declaration of assets, gifting, management of constituency allocations and offences under the MACC Act 2009.

Since leading Pakatan to Putrajaya on May 9, Dr Mahathir has been on an anti-corruption drive.

On what was he was wished for for his 93rd birthday, Dr Mahathir said: “I hope the media will help us wipe out corruption.”

Meanwhile, the government is mulling whether the declaration of assets by ministers and MPs will be made public.

“The declaration includes family members and we are considering how much we can reveal as it could affect the privacy of many more family members,” said Dr Mahathir.

The government is also considering when the assets should be declared.

Dr Mahathir said it was important that an example is set by all leaders, starting with himself.

“If the prime minister, deputy prime minister and other ministers are not involved in corruption, then it may be easier to wipe out corruption. If the top is corrupt, it will be hard to wipe out corruption.

“Nobody is exempted from the law and rules in this regard,” he added.

However, the Bersatu chairman did not confirm whether salaries for ministers and MPs will be revised, although they are lower than in the private sector.

“I know the salaries are very low compared with the private sector. But we don’t want to be below the private sector too much. As such, we are reducing the salary of the private sector,” he said jokingly.

“Some of the people who were running GLCs (government-linked companies) were getting RM7 million a year.”

He said back when he was prime minister the first time around, he barely touched his own salary.

“When I stepped down, my salary was RM20,000 a month, very much lower than those in Proton. But I find that RM20,000 is more than enough because the government gives you a house and pays for your electricity and water and gives you a car and driver. 

“Everything was paid for. So much so, that for 29 years, I did not spend my salary. 

“I’m not sure about MPs but we are now giving them constituency funds, an office and such. When I was MP, there was no such thing.” – July 10, 2018.