Andrew Khoo, co-chair of the Bar Council’s constitutional law committee said this would show that the prime minister was genuinely interested in reforming political financing.

“It doesn’t take a change in the law to issue an administrative circular to say GLCs do not donate to any political party, all it needs is a Cabinet decision.

“If the prime minister is genuinely interested in reforming political financing, that’s the one thing he can be held to right now,” he said at a conference on political financing.

He was reiterating an issue raised by economist Edmund Terence Gomez earlier at the conference that there should be a blanket ban on political financing from GLCs.

Gomez said GLCs were “problematic” because they were controlled by different politicians and state governments.

Last month, Ismail stated that the Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption had agreed in principle to a political funding bill.

He said the bill was important for the regulation of political financing and to avoid the risk of corruption and abuse of power by politicians, which would negatively affect the country’s image.