Political Financing Act: Current Status, Challenges and the Way Forward
Malaysia’s unregulated political financing ecosystem has been one of the main reasons why corruption, cronyism and conflict of interest have been difficult to curb. Many proposals for reform have been presented by various parties since 2009, and a draft bill was drafted during the Pakatan Harapan administration, although it was never tabled. In light of a renewed interest in the topic, IDEAS and the Malaysian Bar Council are co-organising this conference, Political Financing Act: Current Status, Challenges and the Way Forward. This conference aims to increase understanding of the various proposals for political financing reform and to gather experts as well as politicians from both sides of the divide to support and advocate for a Political Financing Act.
Session 1: Transparency in Political Financing: a Tool against Political Corruption
Political financing is the umbrella term for party and campaign funding which consists of two types of funding, namely direct funding and indirect funding. This session aims to cover the basic principles of political financing and to deliberate on how the passing of the Political Financing Act can help combat political corruption.
Session 2: Public Funding in a Political Financing Act
Public funding can be categorised as direct and indirect financial resources from the government to political parties. This session aims to outline the different models of public funding from other countries and to propose a model for Malaysia public funding in political financing and how this model can potentially stabilise our political system.
Session 3: Independence of Regulating Political Financing: A Proposed New Commission
Malaysia’s electoral process is embodied in the Federal Constitution in Part VIII where Articles 113 and 114 provide for the existence of an Election Commission for the purpose of conducting elections, keeping electoral rolls and reviewing the division of the country into constituencies. This session aims to deliberate on the pros and cons of establishing a new Commission to monitor the financing of political parties.
Session 4: Challenges of a Political Financing Act
On 19 May 2022, the Prime Minister issued a statement stating that the Cabinet Special Committee on Anti-Corruption (JKKMAR) agreed in principle with the proposal to table a Political Financing Bill. This session will discuss further on the remaining challenges of a Political Financing Act – internal party elections, parties in business and the fear of political targeting of parties and private company donors. This session also seeks the parallel solutions that must be considered such as the Political Parties Act and other solutions in the long term within the Companies Act and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act.