KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): The Malaysian Bar has repeated its call for the enactment of political financing laws without any delay.

In a statement on Friday (Aug 5), Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah Yee Lynn said there is clearly a dire need for good governance and transparency relating to activities carried out by political parties and politicians, especially in the process of handling political funds.

She said the lack of a legislative framework in Malaysia has created an ecosystem ripe for corruption, cronyism, conflict of interest, and abuse of power, all of which have been difficult to curb.

“While it is recognised that access to funding by political parties and politicians for the purpose of election is necessary, we must never overlook and certainly must learn from recent past events, that disclosure of source of monies and the manner [in which] they are channelled and utilised, must be properly regulated with the view of being fully accountable to members of the public,” she said.

Cheah said that in the aftermath of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal that broke in 2015, it was revealed that money that was misappropriated from 1MDB was channelled to the personal bank account of former prime minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak, wherein a donation from a foreign source for the 13th general election campaign was received.

“This scandal exposed the unsavoury manner in which political parties can abuse such funds to secure support for elections, and is tantamount to subversion of the democratic process, which can destabilise our political system,” she said.

Cheah said apart from what she described as an outdated pre-Merdeka legislation of the Election Offences Act 1954, there is currently no legislative framework in Malaysia to cope with the sophistication of how political financing is carried out in a digitalised world.

“The lacuna is further exacerbated by the inadequacy of effective criminal laws and insufficient enforcement powers in our Election Commission, thereby resulting in the opaqueness of our political institutions.

“Without legislation to govern the financing of political parties and candidates, this will inevitably foster a breeding ground for self-serving patronage among those who are tasked to serve the rakyat,” she said.

Cheah said delay in enacting political financing laws will have a deleterious effect on the confidence of Malaysians in the system of governance.

She said the absence of laws to properly regulate the monies that go towards campaigns and candidates could potentially lead to widespread corruption in the highest echelons of the political system; and corruption is like cancer, with the propensity to corrode and undermine the rule of law and accountability in society, as well as in politics.