MONEY politics has seeped into general elections as a result of the failure to curb it at party election level, Universiti Malaya’s professor Dr Edmund Terence Gomez said.

He described Malaysia’s 13th general election in 2013 as the “defining moment” as money politics was at its most rampant ever, thanks to exposes on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

“We used to talk about money politics in Umno, MCA and MIC, but now we are talking about money politics in a general election, money politics from the party that has seeped into the national arena.

“The hauling of money in this election (2013) was tremendous and we had no clue where this money was coming from, the money was flowing (throughout) the campaign period,” the expert on Malaysia’s political economy said at a forum on Political Financing Reforms, organised by the G25 group in Kuala Lumpur today. 

Gomez said revelations have shown that the US$681 million (RM2.6 billion in 2015, when the matter was exposed) from 1MDB which flowed into former prime minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts were used for the 2013 general election.

Earlier this month, the Pakatan Harapan government’s special investigative task force on 1MDB announced that more than 400 bank accounts had been frozen on suspicion of receiving 1MDB funds from Najib’s account.

Some of the recipients were political parties and were given funds for the 2013 general election.

Gomez said in the recent 14th general election, money politics was also practiced in the guise of government policies, such as the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) handouts, he said. 

“Because we didn’t deal with the political finance reforms, money politics has taken place in so many forms, it has even become part and parcel of how public policies are created and how they are implemented. 

“Money politics is not just about the financing of parties, it has become a big issue in terms of how we conduct our politics and policies. We need to make sure the reforms are instituted once and for all,” he said. 

Gomez said money politics in Umno started in 1981 when Tengku Razaleigh Tengku Hamzah was contesting the deputy president’s post.

The rise of government-linked corporations (GLCs) was another source patronage in 1987 party elections, with these companies used to channel money to political parties, he added.

He also said that money from big businesses reached party grassroots in the 1993 Umno election and money politics became entrenched in Umno when Dr Mahathir Mohamad became finance minister, and has continued until Najib’s leadership.

Malaysia has no regulations on political financing and although the previous government under Najib had said it was looking at introducing new laws, none have been enacted.

The new Pakatan Harapan government under Dr Mahathir, who is prime minister, has announced plans to table a law on political funding to curb corruption and lobbying.

Gomez said political parties had to reform their funding system from within. He said the recent Umno elections showed that the former ruling Malay party had not changed its internal politics, despite losing federal power.

“Instead of seeing new blood coming to helm, the old guards and warlords secured power. Politics has not changed in spite of Umno losing power. 

“This is why internal party reforms are important.” – July 21, 2018.