That, he said, would first depend on PH winning the general election.
Adding that New Zealand was the least corrupt country in the world, he said Malaysia would only benefit by emulating it.
“In these countries, government contracts and procurement are awarded transparently based on merit and not to their cronies. Denmark has an oversight committee that ensures government contracts are given based on merit.
“Malaysia can follow this. However, the committee must be fully transparent and consist of people with high integrity, experts and people of high capabilities.
“In Malaysia if you set up such a committee and then put in your cronies, there is no point and it is only a waste of money,” he told FMT.
In its election manifesto, PH declared that one of its goals was to make Malaysia one of the top 10 least corrupt countries in Transparency International’s (TI) CPI by 2030.
Malaysia dropped seven spots in TI’s global corruption index for 2017, ranking 62nd among 180 countries. It had ranked 55th in 2016 and 54th in 2015.
Akhbar was optimistic about the target but warned that it would take serious political will.
“If you have the political will, if you are sincere, then you can avoid corruption. Nothing is impossible.
“Make sure whatever you promise, you fulfil. This is important. You need to come out with good strategies (to achieve the target) and gain people’s trust in you and your system.
“Anything is possible, so make sure you work hard. Some people like corruption because it can make them money, so strong and sincere political will is essential for this particular promise.”
The Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) recently told FMT that PH’s aim of eradicating corruption was encouraging and a “very big political commitment”.
Its executive director Cynthia Gabriel said it would mean enabling more checks and balances, and less power for the ruling party. She said it would also entail moves like making key institutions independent, allowing free access to information, requiring elected politicians to declare assets and regulating political financing.
In its manifesto, PH also promised to scrap the goods and services tax, have targeted petrol subsidies, eliminate Felda settlers’ debts, enable housewives to contribute to the Employees Provident Fund and streamline minimum wages.
It also assured restoration of the status of Sabah and Sarawak according to the Malaysia Agreement 1963, suspension of PTPTN higher education fund repayments for those earning below RM4,000 a month, and a “healthcare” scheme for all, together with open investigations into scandals and reviews of mega projects.