Political financing: One thing BN and Pakatan can both agree upon

MORE often than not, the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) and its current nemesis, Pakatan Rakyat, do not see eye to eye.

But when it comes to the issue of political financing – the cash movement between political parties and businessmen – both sides of the political divide seem to agree that what has traditionally been a hidden activity, done behind closed doors, should remain in the shadows.

It is simply 'not good for business' when an established system of political patronage that funds millions into the war chests of political parties is rocked by something called 'transparency'.

Civil society and NGOs have been calling for the regulation and legislation of political funding for years, but those few politicians who laud the concept do it cautiously, knowing well that many of their colleagues are bound to cry foul for fear of losing their most generous supporters.

When met by Astro AWANI recently, a BN and Pakatan MP – both regarded as liberal and progressive-minded in their respective parties – were also hesitant to make a strong call for reforms in terms of regulating political financing.

"I don't see the opposition calling for it. Let’s be fair, we need to initiate a consensus on this (before it can take off)," said Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

"The proposal is good, but we need an agreement from both sides of the political divide," the UMNO Pulai MP added.

A doubled-edged sword

Even the idealistic PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli admitted he was 'apprehensive' about having legislation over political financing, saying it could be a 'double-edged sword' for Pakatan.

He argued that it would only be used as another political tool to penalise the opposition, rather than as a tool for check and balance for both.

Pakatan supporters who own small privately-owned businesses would fear being marginalised, compared to big corporations who might be still willing to help BN despite being named, he said.

Rafizi said there are currently enough provisions to investigate all the abuses and rampant misappropriation of state resources.

"The fact that BN spend millions on TV advertising, you don't need a new framework. There are enough laws for the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) to act, but they don't.

"Without sincerity, I would not vote for it (regulation and legislation of political funding)," he said, adding that while he said he "fully supports" the idea, Rafizi expressed doubts that there was "political will" for it to happen.

Call for transparency

Last week, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) repeated the call for the government to regulate financing for all political parties, asking for immediate reforms, including:

• All forms of contributions and funding must be channeled to an official party account and not into political candidates’ personal bank accounts.
• Election expenses of political parties and candidates to be independently audited
• Disclosure of all sources of financing and expenditure by all political parties.

It is not just NGOs that have been talking about it for years.

Prior to the 13th General Election, former Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman wrote in his book about electoral reforms and regulated political funding.

On Feb 27, 2012, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government will soon regulate financing for all political parties through a new initiative under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

The PM had explained that each contribution to a party will require an official acceptance receipt to be entered in the party accounts.

"The government believes this initiative will prevent any form of corruption and misappropriation on a grassroots' level as well as allow parties to benefit from the contributions and for it to be passed on to the people," he had said.

Two years on, however, it has yet to see the light of day.

However, the 2013 GTP annual report said changes are now underway to the legislation that will create a system enabling donors and party officials to track and account for the flow of funds to and from their organisations.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Paul Low had previously told Astro AWANI that he was pushing for political funding to come from the State instead of private entities.

The minister who heads the 'Transparency, Integrity, Governance and Human Rights' portfolio had said that this was being done in countries like South Korea and Germany. He said it would also prevent the risk of jeopardising the country’s sovereignty from foreign sources.

Changing the political culture

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said it was not enough to introduce legislation on political financing, the culture of politicians and the public also must change.

"The very first thing that should happen is that political parties must publish a proper audited account financial report every year," he told Astro AWANI yesterday.

Wan Saiful said currently, it was very difficult to find such reports, and those that are being tabled at party meetings are "rather unrealistic".

"They will show they only own some big buildings, but they don’t have money. It doesn’t sound right," he said.

Wan Saiful said both the ruling coalition and the opposition should stop giving excuses on the matter.

"Like you and I know, politicians can change their colours very quickly, they talk about accountability and honesty, but when you ask them about their financing, they say 'no'.

"Right now, we don’t know a lot of things, about how the government make decisions involving public money, is it a transparent process or is it made based on dealings happening behind the scene?"

Wan Saiful also said it was important for the public to realise that political funding itself was not a bad thing.

"It is understandable and expected that donors could be worried about their names becoming public. But we need to change the culture of victimising supporters of a political party. We must not look negatively to those who donate to political parties. We should celebrate the fact that people are committing to the cause, and not for their own personal benefit," he said.

The outlook on the future

In some countries, political financing by third parties is completely banned or restricted in amount. In Malaysia, however, a viable alternative such as state funding model must first be proposed and put in place in order to do away with political financing in the country.

A study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) on the subject said that political funding is regarded as "one of the key challenges for the future of democracy".

It added that 'money' was an essential part of the process of political parties and their competition for power, which in turn are essential for sustainable democracy and good governance.

"The challenge is to find the best ways of matching the need for a sustainable financial base for parties with the wider public interest of curbing or curtailing corruption and avoiding undue influence in politics," said the handbook "Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns", which called for the issue to be made a public debate.

A survey of 111 countries by International IDEA found that 64% of them have a system of regulation for the financing of political parties. This included Thailand, not Singapore, and Malaysia. The same survey found that a total ban on any type of donation to political parties was seen in 61 (55%) of the total surveyed.

A government source privy to discussions on the matter said, while NGOs are very keen on the matter, it was very difficult to push through in reality.

"It’s not going to happen anytime soon. There are just no takers from BN or Pakatan," the source said.