A DAP lawmaker has raised concerns over the lack of safeguards under the proposed political financing regulations to prevent BN from enforcing “selective implementation” against opposition parties.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming in a statement today referred to the creation of an “office of the controller of political donations and expenditure” under the proposed Political Donation and Expenditure Act (PDEA).

“Political parties and politicians must report their political donations to this controller who will have powers to audit the accounts.

“In addition, this controller also has the power to confiscate donations if they are suspected to be from ‘dubious’ sources,” he said.

Ong said the people have seen how institutions which are supposed to be independent, have been allegedly compromised to benefit BN, citing as example the Election Commission and its ongoing proposed state-wide redelineation exercise.

“We have no assurances that when the pressure is put on this controller, he or she will not buckle to the needs of the BN leadership,” he said, though noting that there were other recommendations which were long overdue.

The proposal is just one of 32 recommendations made by the national consultative committee on political financing, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low Seng Kuan, as contained in its recently released report to be submitted to the cabinet.

Further concerns

Commenting further, Ong noted there are also concerns that BN might “modify” the consultative committee’s recommendations, and allow the controller to ban political parties from taking part in elections.

The ban, he said, could be enforced because of non-compliance of one branch in the party with regards to political financing disclosure.

“A compliant controller may then be pressured to use his or her power to target opposition political parties,” he claimed.

While noting a recommendation that steps should be taken to criminalise discrimination or victimisation of donors, Ong said it would not be surprising if these were ignored by the BN.

He said this was based on previous examples of how laws which were supposed to be “good for democracy and political activity” had been allegedly abused, among others the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 to strengthen the right of assembly.

“Who is to say that this PDEA will not be abused in a similar manner?,” he questioned.

Other Pakatan Harapan MPs had similarly raised their own concerns over other recommendations made in the report unveiled at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur last Friday.

Low, however, said that the committee would go ahead to submit its report to the cabinet as they believe it is good for the people.

The other recommendations include banning foreign sources from making cash donations to political parties and politicians, and prohibiting firms that receive government contracts from making any kind of political contributions.

The committee was formed on Aug 14 last year after increased interest in political financing following the revelation of RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank account.