The Shah Alam MP was referring to allegations that the government lacked transparency and that there could be abuse in the implementation of the policy.
“In Malaysia, it isn’t the lack of law or policies. The problem lies in implementation.
“You want to legitimise political funding in order to regulate political spending, but the politics in the country is such that the ruling coalition (Barisan Nasional) will still find ways to abuse the policies.
“Cronyism will still continue,” he said at a forum titled “Public Funding of Political Parties: Breaking The Curse Of Money Politics”.
Khalid said society at large was used to the idea that politics was dirty.
“They are used to the idea that all politicians are corrupt. To them, politics has to be dirty.
“Political funding regulations can only be implemented when mindsets are changed.
“The people in the rural areas, they don’t understand what good governance is, they have not heard of it.
“That is what we’re trying to do. We need to educate them and speak their language in order to help them understand.
“When we achieve this, then there will be political maturity. Only then can reforms take place,” he said.
Khalid said if political funding regulations were implemented under the current administration, it would put the opposition at risk of legal action.
“BN will take this opportunity to accuse the opposition of corruption or investigate the donor who contributed to the opposition parties.
“This will stop the donors from supporting the parties,” he said.
Khalid said BN’s approach to politics had to change in order for these reforms to take effect.
“To BN, it is a struggle for power. They are not committed to change.
“They don’t understand what politics means. In other countries, the ruling administration allows the people to make their own choices.
“But here, we have BN telling people that if they vote for the opposition, they will become degenerates,” he said.
In October, leaders from Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PAS had expressed fear that the passing of the Political Donations and Expenditure Act (PDEA), which regulates political financing, might be used against the opposition.
The act was tabled with 32 recommendations by the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low.
It did not include any feedback from political parties but a Controller’s Office would be set up to monitor political donations and expenditure.
The recommendations include a requirement for political parties to declare contributions above RM3,000 to the controller, with full disclosure of donor identity to the public to be made compulsory before the 15th general election.
Other recommendations include banning foreign funding, as well as barring state-owned enterprises and companies receiving government contracts from contributing to politicians or political parties.