Last night’s speech by former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin marked yet another attempt to discredit Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s administration in the face of the unresolved 1MDB debacle.

We are all familiar with the issues - the controversial RM2.6 billion donation followed by the alleged blatant encroachment by the Najib administration on the ensuing investigations.

Impactful as this has been, the reality is that this was only the tip of the iceberg, an inconvenient truth about the way the business of politics has been run since our independence, no thanks to the lack of coherent, comprehensive and transparent political financing frameworks and safeguards.

These are reforms that Malaysia so badly needs. Firstly, consider that we lack the transparency that the UK and US have with regard to campaign financing, where limits on funding are present and the complete details of donors and donation amounts for presidential candidates must be declared. Indeed, Japan bans local politicians from accepting donations from foreigners.

Secondly, the need for reform is especially acute given that covert political financing has become systemic and ingrained in the DNA of Malaysian politics to the point that our politicians have become desensitised to it.

From Tunku Abdul Rahman’s alleged secret slush funds to the extraction of cash from patronage networks to the battle between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for the control of Umno’s assets, 1MDB represented just another episode in this series.

Even the opposition’s response has been feeble at best as evident by the disappointing nature of the political debates on political funding reforms. Headline-generating statements of the daft nature are in no shortage, yet no genuine attempts have been made by both sides to come clean and reveal their sources of financing.

Ultimately, all this politicking has distracted us from the critical reforms that are needed.

In this age of the sound bite, policy has taken a backseat, with political tribalism at the forefront and last night’s speech represented just that - another attempt to orchestrate a coup that would by no means guarantee a shake up of the system that is so badly needed. Hence, it would be a folly for Malaysians to rely solely on our politicians for change.

Now this is not to discredit our politicians completely. I want to stress that one can and must empathize with them. Like anywhere else in the world, all political operations need to be run by money. Ceramahs, party flags, campaign workers and speechwriters, none of these come for free.

Subject to the goodwill of their political masters for funding, many politicians find themselves in a tight spot. Thus, even the most genuine and ardent of reformers must think twice about rocking the boat.

This leaves us with a vacuum with regards to reform, one that civil society, everyday Malaysians, academics, bureaucrats and corporates alike with no skin in the political game can and must occupy.

It may seem like a long bet, but as the recent course of history has shown, the ability to shape social and political change is not monopolised by politicians alone.

In Tunisia, it took a man named Mohamad Bouazizi to trigger the Arab spring, a movement that no interventionist western government could have engineered.

In America, the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat in the coloured section to a white passenger on a bus sparked a movement for equality.

A new norm

At home, Malaysians of all races fought for the right to organise peaceful street protests through Bersih 4, resulting in a new norm such that certain parties felt compelled to organise their own red shirt rally to reassure their party base that support remains strong.

Bersih 4 was a sign of what ordinary Malaysians can do when we get our heads together and the spirit of this movement must not end here, it must be followed through with a push for political financing reforms, the lack of which resulted in the 1MDB crisis in the first place.

Like any campaign the messages must be coherent and focused. The messages must matter and they should be delivered with the same gusto as the Bersih and Undilah campaigns.

I would suggest backing proposals made by the G25 group in collaboration with Universiti Malaya academic Terence Gomez to draft a Political Parties Bill to make political financing transparent and accountable. These are non-partisan proposals that are worthy of consideration by everyday Malaysians.

Of course, the government itself has made its own efforts at reform through the setting up a political funding reform commission. I like to think of myself as an optimist, but given recent tampering with institutions I’d like to think that one could be forgiven for viewing this with plenty of scepticism.

The onus is on us to make a difference. The politics we have is only as good as how we want to shape it.

You might as what does this have to do with you? For starters this is an issue that is a quick win for Malaysians when measured up against the bigger and more complex problems such as national unity.

At the same time we have the opportunity to put a stop to the scourge of corruption that has become a norm in politics.

It is a worthy project and our quest for reform, for a third way of Malaysian politics must begin here.