Not right for GLCs to fund political parties: EC chair

EC chairperson Azhar Azizan Harun said that government-linked companies (GLC) should not contribute funds to any political party as their money belongs to the people.

"If that was to be allowed, it should be allowed across the board. Their funds should be given to all parties (and not to just to some)," he said.

Azhar said this when speaking as a panel member at the “Political Funding in Malaysia: The European Experience” forum in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said allowing GLCs to contribute funds to all parties, however, will only solve the issue of equality but not necessarily the issue regarding the funding.

He said these are among the issues which needed to be considered when drafting a political funding bill.

The National Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) has been in talks with political parties to prepare a political funding bill to be presented to the cabinet and later tabled in Parliament.

According to Azhar, other issues that needed consideration was a cap for political funding contributions and the involvement of businesspersons in politics.

Fellow panel member Edmund Terence Gomez (above) from the Universiti Malaya raised the question on how the upcoming political funding act would be able to prevent unscrupulous businesspersons from manipulating the political arena.

"Businesspersons try to fund politicians to later capture control of policy- making. After all, they don't give money free of charge. There must be pay back, for instance, in the form of a (government) concession.

"When rich businesspersons join the political arena, they begin to fund campaigns and destabilise the whole electoral process. How are we going to control this?" Gomez asked.

Azhar suggested one way to regulate the spending power of businesspersons was to regulate campaign expenditure.

"At the end of the day, it's a question of ethics. We can have the best law in the world, but without ethics, it (the act) will really not work. Because there is only so much enforcement one can do so it really boils down to the politicians.

"Are they willing to be ethical and fair?" he posed.

Meanwhile, GIACC director-general Abu Kassim Mohamed (above) said in the past, both the government and the opposition had agreed on not regulating political funding.

"It's very unique. They were united against it," he said.

Commenting on GLCs financing a political party, Abu Kassim said previously many MPs headed GLCs and money from the GLCs were moved from one entity to another before finally reaching a political party.

"Politicians can abuse GLCs for personal gain. They can do what is called 'layering'.

"This means giving the money to a subsidiary of the company, the subsidiary then transfers it to an NGO and the NGO then 'donates' the money to the political party," he revealed. - Mkini