Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism chairman Edmund Terence Gomez said a draft bill had already been completed by the previous administration.

As the Dewan Rakyat will reconvene from June 6 to 15, Gomez said the government could table the bill for debate but feared that “nothing was forthcoming”.

“Didn’t Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim say he has an anti-corruption agenda? Enough of the talk and act now,” he said at an event here.

Gomez, who is a former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission advisory panel member, said a political financing law was crucial for a healthy democracy as it ensures transparency and good governance.

On May 22, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said promised that the government would conduct further consultations before tabling a political financing bill.

In a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat, Azalina said the bill would be referred to the appropriate parliamentary committee to ensure that all significant factors were taken into consideration.

Khoo Poay Tiong, member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia (APPGM) on political financing, subsequently urged the government to provide a timeline for the tabling of the bill as it was a complicated matter that would take time to be made into law.

Gomez questioned the need to refer the bill to a parliamentary committee as Azalina’s predecessor, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, had already planned to table it before Parliament was dissolved last October.

“It (the bill) has already been discussed at length for so many years, why further delay it?”

He said Azalina should submit the bill to the attorney-general for further refinement before tabling it for debate in the Dewan Rakyat.