SEBERANG PERAI, April 14 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has appealed to the people to give his administration a few years to prove its good governance.

He said the federal government needs time to eliminate the "sakau” practice within the administration.

He said corrupt practices have become systemic within the administration which the current unity government inherited from the previous administration.

"If we can cut out these corrupt practices, it will increase our revenue and enable the government to distribute this to the people,” he said.

He said it will not be easy to wipe out corrupt practices within the government as it has spread to all levels of administration.

"I have looked through the files of several decisions made over these two years and those are full of abuses and violations due to the greed of leaders,” he said in his speech during a meeting with the civil servants at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Permatang Pauh here.

He said it doesn’t matter who it was, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had been ordered to act professionally based on data and facts.

"As long as there is a case, the attorney general will take action to prosecute,” he said.

He also called on the civil servants to improve their performance so that the country can catch up with Indonesia and Vietnam.

He praised civil servants in Penang for having among the best performance in the country.

He said Penang and Kuala Lumpur were the two cities that were the top in terms of ease of business for investors.

He said the country needs to have a competitive edge to draw in investors, so the civil service needs to pick up their pace.

"Now, I ask that we defend this state government that can understand and work with the federal government as a team,” he said in reference to the upcoming state elections.

While he said the outcome of the state polls will not affect the federal government, he said there is a need for a strong state government.

"We need strong state governments to support the federal government and to ensure political stability of the country,” he said.

He hoped the people will understand the need to defend the Penang state government too and ensure that it remained strong.