'Act on political financing shouldn't just focus on big donations'

The proposal to introduce the Political Contributions and Expenditures Act should not just look at the big amount donations, said Barisan Nasional (BN) Strategic Communications Director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

"The weekly opposition 'ceramahs' which involve a donation drive through passing around the 'Milo tin' to collect donations from the attendees should also be scrutinised. In addition, donation drives through sponsored dinners must be looked at. Perhaps each donation is small but since the volume is large, the final figure could be huge and could run into millions in one year," he said in a statement, here Friday.

The National Consultative Committee On Political Funding (JKNMPP) had earlier outlined 32 proposals including introducing the Political Donations and Expenditure Act to improve integrity and political funding.

Its chairman, Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, was reported as saying that the proposal would be brought up to the Cabinet within the next two weeks before being presented to Parliament for debate and approval.

Abdul Rahman, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, added that similar law was proposed before the 13th General Election, but sadly the opposition flatly objected it for reasons only known to them.

"It was a big disappointment because the opposition was portraying themselves as being transparent. The idea was mooted back then by none other than the Prime Minister himself," he said.

He said he felt that this proposed reform would see an early demise by the opposition leaders.

"For years, the opposition has been harping on foreign donations. When the government is taking steps to address the issue, you have "political monkeys" jumping up and down thumbing it down," he said.

Abdul Rahman said corruption during election was not just about money, but over promising to the electorates also could be a form of corruption.

"The opposition is notoriously known for this. They like to promise the moon and the stars without regard to the adverse consequences to the economy and the future of the nation. Who is going to monitor that?" he said.

He added focusing solely on political funding would not do justice to government efforts to improve transparency of the election process in this country.

"The ironic thing is that just because the BN is the government, people think automatically that BN is the big bully. This is not true. The reality is that the opposition has been the big bully all this while through systematic smear campaign, which is based on lies and fabricated stories," he said. -- Bernama