SHAH ALAM, June 9: The proposal to create political funding guidelines under the Government Transformation Programme 2.0 (GTO 2.0) does not guarantee transparency and accountability in fighting corruption.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders said that the guidelines to detect financial contributions towards political parties would be meaningless if the details regarding the financial source and expenditure of the political party cannot be disclosed to the public.
PKR Vice President, N Surendran said that the proposal would be approved by Pakatan if the purpose is transparent and the people know where the political contributions come from.
“We, from Pakatan, have no objection to the recommendation, provided that it is not used by BN to oppress or abuse power to benefit themselves.
“However, I do not believe that BN leaders will expose to the public their financing,” he said.
In relation to the, he challenged Umno-BN to really do it openly.
“If the guidelines are applicable, this means that political financing needs to be cared for and be more open.
“So that the people can know where the money comes from. I’m sure that BN will not agree because they earn money from the government,” said the Padang Serai MP when contacted.
Yesterday, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala said that the federal government has received consent from Umno-BN to implement the guidelines for funding of political financing.
According to a Bernama report, the Federal Government wants to obtain the consent from other political parties, including Pakatan component parties, to implement the guidelines.
The proposal wants to introduce regulations to control financial contributions towards political parties.
PAS Vice-President, Datuk Mahfuz Omar said that the proposal would certainly bring about more benefits to Umno-BN.
“Of course it would benefit Umno-BN more because stakeholders in projects will channel to them as was the case in Sabah.
“For example, a case which raised a lot of questions as to how the money was obtained by the Sabah Chief Minister, Musa Aman, while the statement of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department stated that it went into the Sabah Umno account,” he said when contacted.
