'Citizens should be empowered to fight corruption'

It's important to fight corruption in South East Asia and we should develop a better culture with tools to empower ordinary citizens to fight corruption, Executive Director of the Kadirgamar Institute, Asanga Abeyagoonasekera told the 23rd World Economic Forum in Manila, Philippines recently.

"Politicians declaring assets is not enough. We need to analyse the growth of assets of every politician from one election to the other," he said.

Abeyagoonasekera was a speaker on the panel 'Transparency for Growth and Inclusion'. The underlying theme for the forum was 'Leveraging Growth for Equitable Progress'.

Over 600 leaders from business, government, civil society and academic institutions representing 30 countries were present.

While other panellists said corruption was part of the culture, Abeyagoonasekera said that culture needs to be changed and independent agencies with full enforcement powers were necessary to fight corruption.

Placed at the fifth position of the CPI Index in 2013, Singapore is a shining example in fighting corruption.

India adopting RTI (Right to Information Act) was a great achievement.

This empowers the people to question government officers on the budget allocations for their villages or states.

People have the right to know about political financing. Being very wealthy shouldn't be the criteria to get elected to Parliament.

"We need politicians who have the will to fight corruption. Countries should have regional frameworks to fight corruption and not be confined to their own boundaries," he said.