Malaysian political parties 'too involved' in businesses

BERSIH TRIBUNAL Political parties in Malaysia have an extensive involvement in businesses and companies, probably making it a phenomenon unique to Malaysia alone, an academician has said.

"This is probably the only country where political parties are involved so extensively in businesses and companies," said Universiti Malaya's Social and Behaviorial Science Faculty dean professor Terence Gomez in a video testimony played at the People's Tribunal on GE13.

Noting that the majority of these business involvements belonged to Umno, Gomez admitted that this did create an uneven playing field when it came to election funds for both sides of the political divide. 

"This is why, we need to limit the amount of funds available to parties during elections. The same should be available for both sides," Gomez said.

He also said it was not right to have the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to have an oversight over political parties.

"The ROS reports to the Home Ministry. It can't have oversight over political parties. A reform is needed," he said.

Gomez also claimed that politicians from both sides of the divide were very reticent to talk about the sources of funding of their parties.

"The BN politicians are very reticent, so are some of the PKR politicians," he said, basing on his interviews conducted with politicians during the May 5 general election campaign period.

"But DAP and PAS are quite open about their funding. Because they source funding through their ceramah. They even announce openly the amount they collect during these ceramah," he said.

Organised by Bersih, the tribunal panel is chaired by constitutional expert from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Yash Phal Ghai. 

It is being held from Wednesday to Sunday at a Subang Jaya hotel.