Want a public office? How much are you worth?

There is a movement in the parliament to at last address an issue that is important. The “Minbar Islamists” have tabled a motion to force all public officials to declare their worth before they take office, and then audit them when they leave.

Excellent. At last something useful.

They shouldn’t stop at the public official him/herself, that law MUST be extended to audit his direct family as well and raise a red flag whenever that official registers a commercial registration, buys a building, a car or whatever. This is extremely important to increase the government transparency and ensure that no public funds are misused for self-enrichment and lessen the huge problem of corruption we have in government and have had for centuries.

Laws should also be put in place immediately (the motion included 13 articles which I didn’t read yet as well as an explanation memorandum) severe penalties on convicted officials. If a hand goes into a cookie-jar, chop it off and I’ll volenteer to do that myself!

Well done Parliament. These are the issues you should concentrate on rather than allowing police to grow their beards, allowing veiled women to drive or banning a singer’s performance.

While you’re at it, scrap that “smart card” initiative. Or if you can’t /won’t at least put in place serious laws penalising abusive uses of personal information.