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Mahathir
Wants New Ways To Curb Dirty Money
Report
by IOL Correspondent, Kazi Mahmood
KUALA
LUMPUR, March 8 (IslamOnline) - Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad called for
changes in the international banking laws to enable governments to scrutinize
foreign bank accounts of suspected corrupt politicians and officials, news
reports said on Friday.
The
Premier said the laws should be similar to those applied for suspected
terrorists.
“Governments
should be allowed to look into the bank accounts of such people so that their
ill-gotten money can be tracked,” the Prime Minister said.
“If
we can do that to accounts belonging to terrorists, why can’t we do the same
for money belonging to corrupt politicians or corrupt officials?” he asked
during a dialogue at the Asia Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
The
aging leader seems to be aiming at corruption and illegal practices not only in
Malaysia but also in other countries. He said “quite a big number” of
countries had become havens for people who had accumulated wealth through
illegal or unethical practices.
Citing
banking laws in such countries that allows for non-disclosure of banking
transactions, he said such laws provided protection to corrupt people, helping
them hide their ill-gotten wealth.
Mahathir’s
opponents in Malaysia are, however, skeptical over the speech delivered by the
premier on the issue, arguing that they have campaigned over alleged corrupt
practices among politicians in the country.
An
opposition member contacted by IslamOnline to comment on the issue said it was
strange the Prime Minister did not want to investigate the account of local
leaders suspected of illegal practices.
However
Mahathir believes that transparency world wide would mean that the “illegal
and corruptly-acquired money could be prevented from being deposited legally in
some countries.”
“As
it is now, whenever we need to check on allegations of somebody having stashed
money in some banks in some countries, we are told that there are banking laws
that protect the privacy of these accounts.”
“As
a result many people get away with the money that they had obtained through
illegal means. I believe we (the international community) could agree that there
should be less of this kind of practices,” he added.
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