Political Funding Bill to be referred to select committee - Azalina

The Political Funding Bill will be referred to a parliamentary select committee, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said.

“We will refer (the bill) to the select committee that has been established.

“I think the (Dewan Rakyat) speaker will make an announcement on the establishment of the select committees and the Political Funding Bill will be referred to one of the select committees,” she said in response to a question from Khoo Poay Tiong (Harapan-Kota Melaka) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

She had just finished her winding-up speech on the Budget 2023 debate within the allotted time in the august House when Khoo urged her to answer his question on the proposed legislation.

As such, Azalina did not provide further details on the matter.

The Political Funding Bill has been in the making for many years, with previous governments vowing to table such a bill amid regular calls from civil societies for such legislation.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said

It was previously reported last September that the then-Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration was expected to table a Political Funding Bill in Parliament in November.

However, the matter was shelved after Parliament was dissolved to make way for the 15th general election (GE15) last November.

A proposed legislative framework for the Political Funding Bill had also been submitted by the previous Pakatan Harapan government to Parliament in November 2019 to be presented to a special select committee for scrutiny.

However, the Harapan government fell in February 2020 following the Sheraton Move.

After Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim re-tabled the Budget 2023 in February this year, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), which has long been a proponent of regulating political financing, expressed its disappointment that the budget made no mention of the matter.

The C4 has often described political funding as the “mother of all corruption”, due to various ongoing corruption cases involving politicians receiving political financing. - Mkini