He was commenting on an earlier remark by economist Prof Terence Gomez, who questioned the opposition’s apparent reluctance to support proposals to regulate funding for political parties.
Speaking at a forum on political financing today, Ong said they had given Gomez their assurance that the pact would include political reform, including political funding reforms, in their manifesto.
“Maybe Gomez did not read our manifesto. We had referred to the Political Donation and Expenditure Act (PDEA), which was raised by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low.
“We had identified many weaknesses – that the PDEA was not holistic and did not touch on electoral and Election Commission reforms, along with no political financing to political parties.
“This goes to show that PH had the intent and a holistic plan to reform the political institution, as well as introduce reforms on political funding,” he said in the forum held at Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) here today.
Also present were PH chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah and Penang Institute political analyst Wong Chin Huat.
Ong was rebutting the comments made by Gomez at a forum on political funding, held last week at the KL and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.
Gomez was supposed to be present at today’s forum, but was unable to make it due to prior engagements.
Gomez had said the aim of the proposals made by civil society was to support political parties and ensure they had enough money, provided there was disclosure and transparency.
“The opposition is spending so much time running around looking for money that they might not even have time to actually sit down and draft sound public policies.
“I have also told opposition leaders that they can’t be organising dinner after dinner to raise money,” he had said at the forum titled “Public funding of political parties: Breaking the curse of money politics”.
Gomez reportedly said the proposals included the introduction of public funding for political parties, which would reduce the financial advantage enjoyed by Barisan Nasional (BN).
The opposition coalition has been under fire since October, after their refusal to agree with the legislation of the PDEA following fears 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 included creating a Controller’s Office to monitor political donations and expenditure. Low chaired the committee.
The recommendations also required 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.
It also banned foreign funding and barrred state-owned enterprises and companies receiving government contracts from contributing to politicians or political parties.
Earlier, Saifuddin said Prime Minister Najib Razak did not have the moral high ground to suggest reforms to political funding, and that the job was left to Low to draft the PDEA.
“I must praise Low who worked hard to draft the bill, who together with his team took a long time to do it.
“However, with the limited terms of reference, while the proposed political funding law is good, it is not holistic.
“To carry out reforms (to political funding), it is not enough to just amend laws, but the political culture needs to undergo a holistic change as well,” he said.
Saifuddin added that the political funding law alone would not be sufficient, and that there were other laws, as well as election mechanisms within the respective political parties, which needed to be amended.