FAHMI: DON'T ROLL OUT HARAPAN COIN YET, WAIT FOR GUIDELINES
Paperwork on project likely to be given to central bank and prime minister soon, says Fahmi
PKR strategic communications director Fahmi Fadzil urged the government to wait for Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) cryptocurrency guidelines before rolling out the Harapan Coin.
“We need to make sure that we have regulations on political financing in place because of the nature of cryptocurrency.”
“The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency may open us up to a number of issues. We need to wait for guidelines from BNM with regards to cryptocurrency,” he said here yesterday.
Fahmi said that it was difficult for him to agree with the project until these issues were addressed.
Harapan Coin is expected to be the world’s first political fundraising platform that uses cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies if it is filled out.
The paperwork and presentation of the project is expected to be given to BNM and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad soon.
Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad said although the decision and approval from BNM and the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council may take a while, he is however determined to continue proposing the project.
Meanwhile Fahmi said that the government does not have to hastily ratify treaties related to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
He said PKR itself has not decided whether its was good move to ratify the convention as it was still being discussed.
Fahmi however did not want to be locked in by any decision by the government before all views are heard.
“I don’t think we have to hastily ratify the convention before Members of Parliament (MP) have been given an opportunity to discuss and declare both their stand and that of their parties.”
“This also should be done after MPs discuss the issue with the people as we don’t want this to be a divisive polemic especially when the information obtained is untrue or incomplete. We need views from both sides before we can move ahead on this,” added Fahmi.
Parti Amanah Negara had on Tuesday said it would reject any move to ratify ICERD.