“There can be no justification for political parties or politicians using government resources to essentially buy votes,” said Bersih chairman Thomas Fann in a comment on PPBM vice-president Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman’s call on his party to use its position to channel government projects and other resources to division chiefs so they could win elections.
Speaking to FMT, Fann described Rashid’s speech as “outrageous” and said it was a wake-up call on the government to pursue institutional and legislative reforms “if we want to move away from the culture of patronage and corruption”.
He said funds needed to run constituency service centres could come from public donations but he added that they could also be dispensed to political parties from government coffers according to a fixed and transparent formula.
To enable such transparent allocations, he said, Pakatan Harapan should keep its promise to introduce a law on political financing.
“This should be the solution,” he said. “Political parties can then have funds without resorting to corruption.”
Fann also said development funds should be channelled through local authorities, ministries and other government agencies.
Political analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi said he preferred to interpret Rashid’s speech as a call for recognition of the reality that political parties need funds to carry out services for their constituents, particularly in rural areas.
“Things are different in the city, where there are proper facilities and politics revolve around good governance,” he told FMT.
“In rural areas, the politics of development is the order of the day. People look to political parties to resolve issues such as leaking roofs, damaged roads, the construction of community centres or the provision of cash aid for emergencies.”
He said political parties would find it difficult to survive in rural constituencies if they lacked funds to support the kind of work they would need to carry out in such areas.
He said PAS had done better than other parties in rural areas because it was well organised and could count on the spirit of voluntarism of its members.