Move to ban foreign donations to parties

A proposal is underway to regulate political funding

PETALING JAYA: Foreign donations to political parties are to be completely banned under a proposal to regulate political funding.

The National Consultative Committee on Political Financing completed its work on the proposed plan on Aug 19 and has submitted its report to Datuk Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Low is expected to lead the submission of the committee’s report to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“The main principle behind any donation and funding is transparency and accountability,” said committee member Wan Saiful Wan Jan (pic).

“There will be mechanisms put forward by the committee to ensure all donations are transparent and voters can make politicians accountable for the money they receive.”

Najib had announced the formation of the 17-member committee, chaired by Low, in August last year. It was tasked with ensuring political parties were more transparent about their funding, in time for the 14th general election.

At a conference organised by the committee in May this year, “Reinforcing Transparency in Political Financing in Malaysia”, Low said the proposed plan would be presented to the Government by the end of this month (August).

“All donations above a certain threshold will have to be reported and published, and the mechanism for the reporting and publishing will be determined by the Government,” said Wan Saiful, who is chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

The committee is also proposing a Political Donations and Expenditure Act which will outline a detailed mechanism to assure transparency and accountability. Drafting the Act would be done by the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

There were many submissions from G25 (the group of prominent Muslims calling for solutions to the overlap of civil and syariah laws), political parties, civil society organisations and experts, Wan Saiful noted, and the committee “tried our best to take as many of the suggestions on board as possible. The main principles are all there”.

“We have to take it step by step. The first step was completing the report. The next step will be to make sure people in power implement those ideas,” he added.

While the committee’s role was to prepare the report, he said “making sure the implementation is done right is the job of everyone in the country, making sure that the Government does what it’s supposed to”.

Some of the proposals will be quite challenging, Wan Saiful warned.

“I really hope the Government will implement them,” he said.

The call for transparency is not new, he pointed out.

In 2009, Najib had suggested better regulations on political financing, “but there was a cool response, including from the opposition. So it won’t be an easy task”.

The main principle behind any donation and funding is transparency and accountability. Wan saiful Wan Jan