Receiving funds from foreign sources is a clear sign electoral reform group Bersih has been "bought", said former senator Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim.

"It (Bersih) started off as an organisation to promote and fight for free and fair elections.

"Now who would oppose that? I fought for it myself.

"But over time... they have been hijacked and today they have come out openly - they have taken money from outside.

"The mere fact that they take money from outside in itself is an indication that they have been bought," said the Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) founder at a press conference at the Eastin Hotel in Kuala Lumpur today.

Tunku Abdul Aziz called for closer scrutiny of NGOs in the country to ensure that they are not a danger to Malaysia.

He pointed to the electoral watchdog as an example, citing news the coalition had allegedly received funds from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) linked to American financier George Soros.

The former DAP leader had been critical of Bersih even before he quit the party in May 2012.

Tunku Abdul Aziz also reminded that all NGOs have to operate within their constitutions, but many NGOs are not even registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

If they're not registered with the RoS, he asked, why are they allowed to operate at all?

Not only that, even if they were registered, he questioned whether their accounts were regularly vetted or submitted as per the requirements of the RoS.

He pointed out that when he was Transparency International Malaysia president, he refused to take any money from foreign sources.

He also lampooned the reasoning of outsiders trying to promote mature democracies in Malaysia, pointing to the street protests that had sparked throughout the US after the election of president-elect Donald Trump.

"After the elections have produced results, they cannot accept the results that made Trump the next president.

"They are on the streets like Bersih here. No difference.

"So this shows that the so-called mature democracy they want to promote all over the world is immature.

"They have nothing, absolutely nothing to teach us (about democracy)." 

The agenda of the US and Soros, he added, is "nothing more and nothing less than regime change".

He said that they do not care whether the government is constitutionally elected or not, as long as they can effect regime change.