PKR has urged a boycott of laws to govern political funding as long as the prime minister and his ministers fail to make a full and detailed declaration of their assets, revenue and expenses.
PKR vice-president cum secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said today only after this requirement is met, can the people discuss having a transparent political funding law with the hope that political parties do not spend more than they are allowed.
“I am of the view that a transparent political funding can be achieved by the government by allocating grants to political parties based on the majority support they obtained in the last general election.
“When such grants are allocated by the government, then we could have tighter political funding laws by imposing conditions of donations or political contributions where political parties would be required to make a transparent declaration as practiced in other mature democracies,” he said in a statement.
Towards this, Rafizi urged Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Paul Low ( photo ) to get Najib and his cabinet to fully declare their assets first before going ahead in mooting any regulation on political funding.
In calling for the boycott of Najib's proposal to introduce political funding laws, Rafizi reasoned the issue only came up as Najib was facing the people's wrath regarding the 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion allegation of its funds deposited into his personal accounts.
The Pandan MP added the proposal was an attempt to divert attention from the real issue of how the RM2.6 billion came to be deposited into the PM's personal bank accounts.
Bar Council snub
“The real issue is the wealth of some political leaders who are living beyond their means and Najib's admission that the funds which entered his personal accounts were donations to him,” said Rafizi.
He added that until Najib and his cabinet gave their undertaking to openly declare their assets, there was no use in pulling in political parties to discuss political funding.
Yesterday, it was reported that the president of the Malaysian Bar, Steven Thiru ( photo ) had also snubbed an invitation to be part of a panel to look into the issue of political funding saying the authorities should first complete their investigation into the 1MDB cum RM2.6 billion affair .
Najib had on Friday announced the formation of political funding plan to ensure what he claimed were transparency and accountability in the interest of healthy political practices.
