Proposed political funding bill has flaws, say opposition

Nobody in PH trusts Paul Low to deliver a meaningful and balanced legislation, says PKR’s Wong Chen.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) reluctance to endorse the legislation that was proposed in Parliament in October on political funding, was only because opposition parties fear it would be used by Barisan Nasional to gain political leverage against the opposition coalition.

This was revealed by PKR’s Wong Chen, who was responding to Universiti Malaya lecturer Terence Gomez’s contention that the opposition did not want to pursue the legislation of political funding.

Wong told FMT that PH had issued its anti-corruption policies last month and some of its contents were focused on addressing party political financing.

“Prof Gomez may not be aware of these policies. So going forward, a closer engagement between academics, civil society and PH must take place.

“The reluctance of Pakatan to endorse Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low’s proposed legislation is simply because it is a political tool of Umno-BN, and it is designed to scare would-be donors to the opposition parties,” he said.

The Kelana Jaya MP aded that the opposition were also not happy that the proposed legislation did not provide any government financing to political parties.

“Nobody in PH trusts Paul Low to deliver a meaningful and balanced legislation. How can we trust an integrity minister who serves a kleptocrat government?” Wong asked.

In October, PH introduced a multi-point manifesto against corruption that was targeted at the next general election (GE14).

The manifesto, which was read out by PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Parliament building, included pledges giving the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) independent prosecutorial powers, detaining “MO1” within 100 days of winning power, and convening royal inquiries into Felda and 1MDB.

Other points called for open tenders for all government acquisitions and contracts, reforming political funding and introducing laws for greater transparency in the government.

Ong: I have been at many forums with him (Gomez), and I told him that he should wait for our (PH) manifesto.

Speaking for DAP, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said the party did not agree to legislation proposed by the Prime Minister’s Department due to the fact that there were no limits imposed on political donations and, in the current scenario, if a donor is declared, they may get targeted by BN.

“We did meet (Gomez) and we did tell him about our issues with Paul Low’s proposal.

“I have been at many forums with him (Gomez), and I told him that he should wait for our (PH) manifesto,” Ong told FMT.

He added that in the declaration against kleptocracy that was announced last month, PH did highlight some measures that will be taken and these include the reforms that PH is planning to mobilise, including those on political funding.

“Some of the political funding points include limiting donations to a maximum of RM100,000 and that companies cannot donate amounts more than RM10,000, else they would have to declare the amount,” Ong said.

Earlier today, Gomez had questioned the opposition’s apparent reluctance to support proposals to regulate funding for political parties.

Gomez was speaking at a forum titled “Public funding of political parties: Breaking the curse of money politics” at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall here today and had warned the opposition that immediate action was needed on the matter.

In October, political parties were briefed by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity, which is the secretariat in charge of drafting the Political Donations and Expenditure Act Bill.

Leaders from Pakatan Harapan and PAS, who attended the briefing, reportedly maintained reservations on the draft of the bill. -FMT