Integrity in politics requires a lot of effort, says Saifuddin

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah winces whenever an election is due as someone would come up to him and ask for favours.

“During election, you’d want to win. But would you want to win having contested fairly, or would you want to win at all cost?” he asked.

Recounting experiences during previous elections, the deputy higher education minister said it was difficult for elected representatives to say “no” to their constituents and to put their foot down and refuse to give bribes.

“For example, a village head can come up to a candidate, promising him that 100 voters will vote for him in exchange for ‘something’.

“If that ‘something’ is to repair bridges or roads, I think that’s fair to ask of an elected representative.

“But if it turns out to be cash, then you’re in a spot,” said Saifuddin, who is also Temerloh MP and an Umno supreme council member.

While he said some seem to understand his stand on the matter, there are those who would tell him that he is not being “helpful”.

“It is difficult for some to accept this,” said Saifuddin, who is the first MP to state his intention to sign the Election Integrity Pledge initiated by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M), launched on Saturday.

The Election Integrity Pledge emphasises the core values required by candidates when carrying out their duties.

After reading about it in the news, Saifuddin tweeted he would sign the pledge and rang TI-M president Datuk Paul Low.

“I do it because I believe in it. I have been a big believer in it for a long time and I even write about it,” he said, referring to a good portion of his 2008 book New Politics.

Head mitted that integrity in politics required a lot of effort on the part of politicians.

“I am glad Umno amended its constitution to allow close to 150,000 to participate in the party election from the previous 3,000 voting delegates.

“In actual fact, it makes it difficult for money politics. But we have to do more on this,” he said.