KUALA LUMPUR: There is a need for a legislation to regulate political funding to ensure that all parties have equal access to money, an academic said yesterday.
Terence Gomez (pix), a senior fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) said a Political Funding Act would level the playing field, thus ensuring fairness in political competition.
Such legislation would require political parties to disclose their accounts and reveal who is funding them so “the people would know what they are saying is true”.
“It must be transparent, where they are getting their funding from, who is financing them,” he said at the GLC Monitor 2019: State of Play Since GE14 presentation.
Gomez said in the past, opposition parties did not disclose who their benefactors were for fear that the government would take action against them.
“But things have changed. Big businesses are funding political parties in many countries, so there is a need for such an Act.”
He said there was always a possibility that these benefactors could influence government policies or get concessions. “But politicians think they can get more funds by remaining silent,” he said.
Gomez said this could lead to political parties pushing only those policies that benefited their funders and not the nation. “Unless they disclose this, the public will never know for sure.”
He said there was an urgent need to put in place a mechanism to disclose sources of funding and how much of that money goes into funding an election campaign.
He added the same regulation should also apply to party elections and financing.
Gomez cited the case of PKR accepting businessmen as members, raising questions about these entrepreneurs’ sudden interest in politics.
“But businessmen can provide funds and politicians don’t mind having access to such funds because it comes in useful when they need to mobilise people.”
He said it could be easy for businessmen to take power if they use their own money, citing the example of US President Donald Trump.
He said money politics could also curtail the rise of young people in a political party because all they have are ideas and a willingness to debate them but not the money.
The government is expected to table the Political Funding Bill next year.
