Kuala Lumpur, 13 October 2021 -The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) released two new publications on the topic of political financing in Malaysia. The two Brief IDEAS are ‘Brief IDEAS No. 33 – Political financing in Malaysia: Recent developments and plugging potential gaps’ by Aira Azhari and Tricia Yeoh, and ‘Brief IDEAS No. 34 – Political financing in Malaysia: Aligning reforms with voter expectations’ by Aira Azhari. The two papers are the culmination of a whole year of IDEAS’ work to ensure a transparent, accountable and institutionalised political financing ecosystem in Malaysia.

“Over the past year, IDEAS has contributed to the debate surrounding political financing through our workshops with youth wings of political parties, commissioning a survey to understand what voters’ expect from their elected representatives, producing two educational videos on political financing with our partner The Fourth and more recently, the effort to form an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on political financing. The findings that we have gathered thus far has informed the two Brief IDEAS released today.

In Brief IDEAS No. 33, we delve into some of the important factors that must be considered when pushing for legislation on political financing, such as businesses owned by political parties, the large gaps between the wealth owned by some political parties over others, established informal practices in Malaysian politics and internal party elections.

In Brief IDEAS No. 34, we present the findings from the workshops we held in June – July 2021 and the survey we commissioned in May 2021, with data collected between 28 May – 8 June 2021.  The findings show that apart from the Political Financing Act, Malaysia needs to reform the way Constituency Development Funds (CDFs) are managed, state welfare institutions need to be strengthened, and the Parliamentary Services Act and local council elections must be reintroduced,” comments Aira Azhari, Manager of the Democracy and Governance Unit and paper author.

“Although political financing reform was not in the MoU that was signed recently between the federal government and the opposition, I am still hopeful because more and more politicians are realising the importance of this cause. Reforming political financing is absolutely fundamental to restore trust in our democracy and to combat corruption. I urge our ADUNs and MPs to seriously consider our recommendations in the two papers we released today and IDEAS remains ready to support institutional reforms, particularly on political financing.

We look forward to the Political Financing Bill being tabled in the next parliamentary sitting, as we strongly believe that reforming political financing in Malaysia will lead to a more stable political system, which will benefit voters and parties alike. Public funding particularly has been proven to stabilise and institutionalise political parties in other regions, and it is time that Malaysia seriously thinks about implementing public funding as well,” comments Tricia Yeoh, IDEAS CEO.

The two Brief IDEAS can be downloaded here:

• Political financing in Malaysia: Recent developments and plugging potential gaps – 
• Political financing in Malaysia: Aligning reforms with voters’ expectations – 

The survey report can be downloaded here:

The two videos can be viewed here:

• This is how money rules Malaysian politics –
• This is how we fix Malaysian politics –

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For enquiries, please contact:
Zokhri Idris, Ph.D, Director, External Relations
T: +603 2070 8881/8882 | E: zokhri@ideas.org.my