THE opposition will score points with voters if they are transparent about their political funding, a forum on public political funding in Kuala Lumpur was told today.
Universiti Malaya’s Professor Edmund Terence Gomez said the opposition would gain the full support of civil society if they did so.
“Civil society members are very upset that politicians across the board are not responding,” said Gomez at a forum on public political funding in Kuala Lumpur today.
He also questioned why the opposition had refused civil society’s proposal on public funding for political parties.
“And you should have it (public funding) not just during times of elections but during times of non-election for a proper functioning democracy.
“Political parties need money so that they can function properly,” he said, adding that there must be disclosure of resources if there was public funding for political parties.
Gomez said there should also be institutional reforms if there is a request for public funds.
In 2015, G25 and 70 other civil society groups submitted a study on political funding reforms to Prime Minister Najib Razak to make political funding more transparent and accountable through new laws, as reported by The Sun daily.
Last year, the opposition did not support Transparency International’s (TI) suggestion to legitimise political funding.
In September, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low said laws to govern political funding for parties would be ready by the 15th general election.
“This act is not in time for the 14th general election but will be in place for GE15. It is a big piece of legislation.”
Low said private and public funding mechanisms for funding political parties were discussed but many were opposed to public funding as they objected to taxpayers funding politicians. – December 15, 2017.
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