Pre-election promises and handouts by the government are not considered bribery, said Mustafar Ali, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy chief-in-charge of prevention.

He told a press conference today that in order to be considered as graft, a gratification needs to be given for the purposes of inducing the recipient to do something, or to refrain from doing something.

Government handouts do not fall under this category, he said.

"When it comes to government aid, there is a manifesto to help a target group. It is like aid for disaster victims as in the case of the recent  Kelantan floods.

"It is aid. It is just actions taken to provide aid," he told reporters when asked at a press conference at the International Islamic University College of Selangor (IIUCS) in  Kajang.

No straight answer

When asked whether such aid would be considered as an inducement to the people, Mustafar replied in the negative.

During the dialogue with students earlier, one student had asked whether pre-election goodies such as the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) scheme was tantamount to graft.

Instead of providing a straight answer however, Mustafar digressed and spoke at length on various scenarios where individuals offered "gifts" to officials and situations where it could be considered as graft.

When in doubt, he said such gifts should be declared to superiors or the relevant official for a decision on whether the recipient could keep the gift, or whether other action needs to be taken.