IDEAS proposes principles for fair political financing

KUALA LUMPUR: The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) today released a paper proposing five key principles to ensure a just system of political finance based on the rule of law.
The principles outlined are:
1) Presence of the rule of law, in which the rules must be equally enforced on everyone by an independent body and there must not be any elements of arbitrariness.
2) Fairness for all involved, namely voters and political parties, regardless of whether the funding is from private and public sources.
3) Transparency and accountability, where voters should know funding sources of their parties in order to make informed choices.
4) Checks and balances to prevent unlimited power, in which the party which wins an election must not be able to fashion a system which favours them.
5) Exercise of political and civil liberties by the electorates, where the system must be designed to ensure all parties have sufficient resources to exercise their political rights.

The paper titled "The Principles of Political Finance Regulations", authored by Germany-based international researcher Stefan Melnik, explains the concept of political financing and its relationship with democracy.
Melnik said proper competition and real choice are not possible without substantial financial resources.
"Securing and protecting political rights and civil liberties are not only matters of law, but also a matter of ensuring that these rights mean something substantive." he added.
IDEAS chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan said he will take these proposals to the government committee, of which he is a member, on political financing which is headed by Datuk Paul Low.
He added these principles will strengthen public confidence in the democratic processes.
"They are important as the committee will propose ways to regulate political funding including amending existing laws," he said, adding that the country has seen some extremely questionable practices when it came to political financing but due to the lack of an effective set of laws, no action can be taken.
Wan Saiful said: "We need to fix this so that our laws are realistic and up to date, and no more abuses can take place."