PETALING JAYA: A political analyst has dismissed the idea of anything insidious in businessmen funding the political parties that they feel are likely to win, saying this is in fact a norm.

Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), said such people only engaged in the practice to protect their businesses.

“It does not mean that they are supporting the party or are loyal to the party. This is usually done out of self-interest.

“It’s all about playing safe. Sometimes, they fund both sides so that they can curry favour if the party they support wins,” he told FMT.

Kamarul, who heads UUM’s Institute for Political Studies, said the names of such funders were not revealed in Malaysia for fear that they would be blacklisted by political groups opposed to the beneficiaries.

This secrecy, however, creates more problems as opposing politicians tend to believe that these businessmen want the other side to win.

Kamarul was commenting on blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin’s recent claim that tycoon Robert Kuok had channelled funds to DAP through his nephew, James. James has denied this.

Raja Petra also claimed that Kuok had an agenda to replace Malaysia’s leadership with DAP so that the Chinese could be in power.

On Sunday, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said he had never received any money from Kuok, including through intermediaries like James.

Kamarul said politicians should stop being critical of others who receive money from individuals or companies.

He said this could be done if all sides pushed for the proposed Political Donations and Expenditure Act (PDEA) in Parliament to require the names of funders to be publicly stated.

“Both sides of the divide need to be sincere in implementing this. It would also end money politics.

“It should be legalised to allow Malaysia to move towards mature politics. Transparency is needed,” he added.

The PDEA was proposed with 32 recommendations by the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low.

The recommendations included creating a controller’s office to monitor political donations and expenditure.

They also called for a requirement that political parties declare contributions above RM3,000 to the controller, with full public disclosure of the donor’s identity to be made compulsory before the 15th general election.

There is also a ban on foreign funding.

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