Pressure is growing on newly-elected Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to appoint people to his Cabinet who are corruption-free.

Kuala Lumpur: Pressure is growing on newly-elected Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to appoint people to his Cabinet who are corruption-free. Veteran politicians, observers and academics have said that Mr Abdullah must make good on his promises to clamp down on corruption by choosing those who are clean, The Star newspaper reported yesterday.

“The Prime Minister’s huge victory comes with enormous responsibility, because he now has to fulfil the expectations of the people that he had raised during his campaign to rid the country of corruption,” Transparency International Malaysia president Abdul Aziz Tengku Ibrahim was quoted as saying. “If he surrounds himself with Cabinet colleagues who cannot withstand close public scrutiny, his call for national integrity will sound very hollow,” he added.

In the lead-up to the announcement, aides to Mr Abdullah and his close friends have been inundated with SMS and calls to their mobile phones from politicians who want to be considered for cabinet positions, the New Straits Times newspaper said.

Today Online, March 25, 2004