Former Umno minister Rafidah Aziz believes it is a fallacy for any political party to say that it does not need political funding.

This is because funds are needed to pay for election machinery - such as to buy flags and to maintain the operations room - she noted.

“We need the money because you can’t pluck money from trees,” said Rafidah during a talk held in Kuala Lumpur today.

But declaring political funding, on the other hand, is another matter.

“It all boils down to integrity - whether you want to declare (your political party’s funding) or not,” Rafidah added.

Hence, she said proper mechanisms are needed to ensure that political funding is transparent.

“Of course people are talking about it (political funding) now. (But) it’s better late than never, the mechanisms are all there,” she pointed out.

Her remarks come after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak went under intense pressure over the RM2.6 billion ‘political funding’ that had been deposited into his personal bank accounts.

Soon after the ‘donation’ was exposed, Najib announced a plan to regulate political funding for the next general election.

This, he said, was to ensure accountability and transparency in the “interest of healthy political practices".

The opposition, however, have since voiced their disagreement to Najib’s proposal.

In response to the plan, PKR urged for 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.