Topic: Anti-corruption framework, United Nations General Assembly Special Session 2021
Coverage by: The Malaysian Insight
Related news: https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/319751
THE Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has asked the United Nations to partner civil societies in its fight against graft around the world, including Malaysia.
C4 director Cynthia Gabriel said civil societies could help to develop solutions to support the international anti-corruption framework.
Citing the 1MDB scandal as an example of grand-scale corruption, Cynthia said the world needed to ensure that whistleblowers were protected and crimes like that would no longer go unpunished, not only in Malaysia but elsewhere.
“Once a booming economy, Malaysia has been embroiled in the notoriety of multiple corruption schemes, 1MDB scandal, that stretched over multiple countries and jurisdictions, involved a slew of agents, commercial banks, and international law firms that helped hide billions of stolen cash in offshore jurisdictions using shell companies to steal money for private and political gain,” she said.
“Whistleblowers, investigative journalists and anti-corruption activists played a central role in exposing and calling out corruption at the highest levels, and yet my colleagues and I were repeatedly intimidated, attacked and arrested by the authorities. We were persecuted simply because we followed the money trail, spoke up, published articles and mobilised the public to demand answers
“We overcame the fear, the reprisals and retribution. We managed to score important victories: the former prime minister and his cohort in the 1MDB (affair) have been charged and are on trial. In too many cases around the world, powerful individuals, and many in the business of facilitating corruption, continue to enjoy impunity,” she said in a statement to the United Nations special session against corruption.
C4, a non-profit policy advocacy group, was invited to take part in the event by the UN General Assembly.
Malaysia has been in the international spotlight due in no small part to the 1MDB heist and money laundering, which spanned the globe.
Former prime minister Najib Razak, who held the dual role of also being the finance minister, was the 1MDB chairman.
He has since been convicted on seven charges in relation to the theft of funds from 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
In the C4 statement to the UN, Cynthia expressed disappointment in the failure of the UN member states to reach consensus on measures that would have resulted in substantive progress in strengthening international cooperation.
She called on the member states to act on the following points:
- Introduce public registries of beneficial company owners – corrupt individuals cannot hide behind secret shell companies.
- Guarantee full protection of whistleblowers, civil society and journalists.
- Ensure that oversight bodies and the judiciary are adequately resourced and independent –to act without undue political interference.
- Mandate the publication of declarations of assets, elected officials – and detect conflicts of interest.
- Increase transparency over efforts to recover and return stolen assets.
- Take enforcement action to end the impunity of powerful individuals involved in grand corruption.
The UN General Assembly hosted the special session on Challenges and Measures to Prevent and Combat Corruption and Strengthen International Cooperation programme from June 2 to 4 at the UN headquarters in New York. – June 5, 2021.
