KUALA LUMPUR: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) roadmap looks like a "very impressive thesis" but doubted the government has the political will to implement the changes as mapped out in the 261-page document.

"I had a quick flip through the GTP, and it is a very impressive thesis. But the test is in the implementation," he said after visiting the GTP roadmap exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.

He said what the people wanted was not thesis writing but a change where they could feel an improvement in their lives.

The DAP strongman said he wanted to see GTP succeed and not go the way of the National Integrity Plan, which he deemed a failure.

"The NIP was formulated and presented as a national transformation programme but nobody talks about the NIP because it has been a total failure," he said. The NIP was launched in 2004 by the then prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"If it was successful, they won't have to come up with the GTP today."

In order for the GTP to be successful, Lim said, the government needed to eradicate corruption first.

"Why has the government not taken ownership in the battle against corruption, and to declare zero-tolerance against corruption? We want leaders to breath, feel, live, dream the commitment to fight corruption," he said.

Lim pointed out that Malaysia's score in Transparency International's (TI) index at 4.5, is the lowest ever for the country.

"We seem to be fighting a losing battle in the war against corruption. Although the Prime Minister said we are making a progress in the fight against corruption, the people don't see any progress," he added.

Lim also pointed to the government's lack of resolve in weeding out the practice of issuing support letters in the procurement of government contracts.

"The GTP roadmap said it is difficult to change this practice overnight. But why must they need five or ten years (to implement this)? Why can't the PM take the political decision to immediately (ban) the use of support letters?

"There is just no political will in the fight against corruption. The government should immediately announce henceforth no letters of support are allowed and all contracts will go through an open tender exercise," he said.

Lim also suggested the formation of a Parliamentary Select Committee in order to see the success of the GTP.