But there is a general view among critics that the opposition pact is not completely committed to legislating laws that regulate political funds.
The initial notion was that PH wanted to mobilise institutional reforms that included implementing laws that could limit unregulated funds and political donations contributed to both the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and opposition parties.
Although the opposition coalition had seemingly agreed to the idea, until today PH has not come up with a concrete proposal of steps that could be taken to end money politics.
Universiti Malaya’s Terence Gomez, together with NGO representatives, have since been trying to gather support from the opposition coalition, but they have met with disappointment.
The opposition coalition, while voicing reservations on proposals made by the Prime Minister’s Department through its Minister Paul Low, says it has yet to reveal a counter proposal that befits concerns of political funding.
Upon studying the subject more closely, a source revealed that PH leaders were indeed not serious in pushing for reforms in particular with matters pertaining to political spending and contributions.
“When they were drafting the anti-corruption policies, they took out two glaring points – one being the ban on corporations from donating to political parties and limiting the assets owned by a political party to RM500 million.
“Both of these points were taken out and this proves that they are not serious with actually pushing for political funding to be legislated,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) communications director Khalid Samad said at a forum earlier that Amanah had carried out efforts to emulate regulating political spending.
“Amanah has been funding the party with 40% of its MPs’ salary each month, comprising donations from members and sympathisers.
“Even to run a decent state level office and its operations, we need a bit of funds.
“If we were to allow the current administration to implement political funding laws, whatever little we get from donations will be taken away from us,” he said hinting that the ruling party would take advantage of the new laws.
He added that society is set in a way that it is still prone to racial issues should changes take place drastically, such as the loss of the two-thirds majority by BN during the 2008 general election.
“It was very tense over the next few days in Selangor after the general election on March 8, 2008, and this proved that society was not able to understand fully the changes that took place.
Khalid was speaking at a forum titled “Public Funding of Political Parties: Breaking The Curse Of Money Politics” earlier.
The opposition coalition has been under fire since October, after their refusal to agree with the legislation of the Political Donations and Expenditure Act (PDEA), in fear that it may be used against them.
The Act was tabled with 32 recommendations by the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing, which did not include any political parties, and it had included creating a Controller’s Office to monitor political donations and expenditure. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low chaired the committee.
The recommendations also include 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, banning foreign funding and barring state-owned enterprises and companies receiving government contracts from contributing to politicians or political parties.