Let’s tackle political funding to fight graft
issue of political funding is critical if an anti-corruption culture is to take root in the country. Political funding can be abused to the detriment of society.
In Malaysia, as former Election Commission chairman Datuk Azhar Harun, who’s now the Dewan Rakyat speaker, said there were basically two risks: unrestricted lobbying and funding.
One was corruption, and the second, more insidious risk was that policies will be promulgated at the behest of funders without concern about the impact on the public.
Towards that end, the Elections Act (1958) should be amended to require political parties and candidates to disclose their donors as well as limit campaign contributions. The mandatory requirement for auditing campaign contributions should also be included.
This would then be supplemented and complemented by public funding as in the case in other countries.
Currently, the Act only limits campaign spending, which is an anomaly. TheNationalAnti-CorruptionPlan20192023 calls for the Election Commission to review the amount of allowable election expenses and to define what constitutes as “election expenses”.
The Election Offences Act 1954, especially Part III (Corrupt Practices), should be strengthened when it comes to inducement to vote or “vote buying” (re: Section 9 & 10).
The terms of penalty under Section 11 — a maximum jail sentence of two years and fine of RM5,000 — should be enhanced.
At the same time, a case could be be made for the introduction of an Act (similar to that in the UK where it’s in the form of the Representation of the People’s Act), whereby a statutory duty is imposed on all members of parliament (MPs) and assemblymen to disclose, highlight and update records of donations — RM10,000 and above — from corporations and business or corporate figures on their website.
The Act will also require MPs to make an annual report to the EC on the donations received from corporations, and stating reasons for the donations.
The National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption is pushing for a rule that requires the disclosure of the source of political funding above RM10,000.
To complement and supplement this policy proposal, layers of corporate veils deployed to mask the identity of the funder should be countered with the mandatory requirement for the disclosure of beneficial ownership analogous to proxy share ownership holding in trust for the real owner.
Such proposed measures will strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act/ AMLA (2001) and Banking & Financial Institution Act/BAFIA (1989).
We should study the political funding models in other countries. In Germany, the government provides funds for political parties during elections.
Germany’s Political Parties Act (1967) stipulates that the state will fund the parties to partly finance their general activities, and the criteria for the distribution of public funds would be the parties’ performance in the European Parliament, Bundestag (federal Parliament) and Landtag (state Parliament).
Public funding of elections would reduce political parties’ dependency on corporate donations, preventing corporations from influencing policymaking decisions and ensure that the elected government and representatives work for the public interest, thus upholding democracy.
The right approach is to revise laws continuously to fight corruption.
JASON LOH SEONG WEI EMIR Research
Kuala Lumpur