Low: Campaign funding law won’t be ready for GE14

KUALA LUMPUR: The law to regulate political funding is unlikely to be tabled in Parliament anytime soon.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan said a technical committee was working on the proposed “Political Donation and Expenditure Act”. The next step would be to get the AttorneyGeneral’s Chambers’s feedback.

“It won’t be tabled this year as it is quite a big act and it requires a lot of effort,” he said at the “Regional Conference on Democracy in Southeast Asia: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects” here yesterday.

“We have consulted the public, interest groups and political parties. But it will not be in time for the general election. For the 14th General Election, there are acts under MACC (Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission).”

While noting that the citizens of some countries were opposed to the private funding of election campaigns, he said Malaysians might not feel the same way and or approve of state funds being used instead.

“If we go for that sort of formula, with no private funding allowed, we need to depend solely on state funding.”

Asked whether travel allowances offered to voters amounted to bribery, Low said it depended on the context in which the offers were made and why they were necessary.

“The question is does it influence someone to vote for you? It doesn’t, does it? If someone says I need so much money to go back to my hometown to vote, it doesn’t mean the person is obliged to vote for the party or person who gave him the money.

“Unless the person says to him: ‘I’ll give you the money provided you vote for me”, then that’s bribery. But, if enticement to vote for you is not proved, how can that be bribery?”

MACC had said that travel allowances to entice voters to return to their hometowns to vote were bribery. Its deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Azam Baki said, in the eyes of the law, offering voters any form of inducement, be it cash or gifts, amounted to bribery.