(Aug 18): PKR has urged all parties to boycott discussions on the regulation of political funds until the prime minister and all members of the cabinet declared their assets, income and expenditures.

Its secretary-general, Rafizi Ramli, said only with this, the people can be assured that those in government who spent more than what they earned would be brought to book first.

"Only after Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his ministers declare their assets, income and expenditure, can the people talk about reforms of the political funding framework," he said in a statement today.

"I urge all involved to boycott any effort to form any laws that will control political funding as long as the prime minister and his ministers do not declare in detail these things, just as I have previously done."

The public is pressing Najib and his party, Umno, to justify receiving RM2.6 billion in political donations from a Middle Eastern country.

Last Friday, he announced the formation of the national consultative committee on political financing to develop a plan to ensure transparency and governance over party funds.

Najib said an action plan to cover political funding would be developed, and covered institutional change, monitoring, new regulations as well as law enforcement.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Paul Low, who is in charge of governance and transparency, will head the committee.

Rafizi said that he had been invited by the Malaysian Integrity Institute to join a roundtable discussion on the matter, but decided to not attend.

"My stand is clear, that the issue of laws on political funding had only cropped up because of Najib's desperation in facing the ire of the public following the scandals of 1Malaysia Developent Berhad and the RM2.6 billion fund."

He said the allegations by whistleblower site Sarawak Report today, which revealed that the prime minister had spent some US$1 million (RM3.5 million) through credit card transactions while on vacation in Europe in August last year proved that politicians lived beyond their means.

Instead of regulating political funding, Rafizi said the process could be more transparent by using the government's method in allocating grants to political parties according to their majority of votes acquired in the last election.

News of the panel came amid debate over political funding practices in Malaysia, which has no laws to regulate the amount of donations or disclosure of donors' identities.

Controversy was triggered after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said the RM2.6 billion in Najib's personal bank accounts was a political donation.

Najib and other Umno leaders have said there is nothing wrong with him as party president holding such funds in his personal accounts for the party. – The Malaysian Insider