In welcoming a proposal for a new law, the Political Contributions and Expenditure Act, he said the idea to table the law followed several series of discussion with all parties, including the relevant authorities.
He said a comprehensive guideline was required to ensure all political parties were transparent on the source of their political funds.
“We do not want only the ruling party, especially the component parties in Barisan Nasional (BN), which have been hurled with various accusations (to reveal the source of their political funds), as if the (opposition) parties on the other side do not receive political funds from sources that they cannot reveal,” he said.
Zahid, who is discharging the duties of party deputy president, told this to reporters after opening the Tanjung Piai Umno delegates meeting here today.
He said all quarters should have an open mind so that the proposed law could serve as a guideline for all political parties to ensure transparency in political funding.
Zahid said this in response to the 32 proposals by the National Consultative Committee On Political Funding, including the introduction of the Political Donations and Expenditure Act to improve integrity and political funding.
Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low Seng Kuan, who is chairman of the committee, said the proposal would be brought up to the Cabinet within the next two weeks before being presented to Parliament for debate and approval.
Earlier in his speech, Zahid said the formula of “negotiating among siblings” is always practiced in Umno and the BN component parties, especially in the distribution of parliamentary and state seats.
He said the BN always gave chance to all component parties to contest, even in constituencies where they did not represent the majority race.
“We (Umno) negotiate like siblings because MIC, MCA, Gerakan and other component parties are like siblings, we are all sheltering under one umbrella,” he added.
Despite the various challenges facing the BN component parties in the last general election, Zahid said he believed the support from the people to BN was now stronger.
He reminded Umno members to remain united and avoid rifts among them.
“Umno will continue to fight for the interests of Islam, the Malays and for the country, without sidelining other religions and races,” he added.