By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Sept 11: The Federal Cabinet has agreed in principle to formulate a bill on political funding to prevent corruption among politicians, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He said following the cabinet’s decision on Sept 7, he will put forward the views of stakeholders including political parties through engagement sessions in the drafting of the Bill where an independent entity will also be set up to monitor political contributions in the country.
“I will also put forward the views of the federal cabinet on having the proposed legal framework for this Bill to be presented to the Political Transformation and Political Understanding Memorandum Technical Committee for finetuning before being brought to the parliamentary sitting.
“Therefore, we will try to table the Bill at the Third Meeting of the Fifth Term of the 14th Parliament in the Dewan Rakyat,” he said in a statement today.
The political funding law would, among others, define types of funding allowed to be donated to political parties, as well as penalties for illegal funding.
The law which has been talked about since 2009, was brought forward by the government in 2014 but did not materialised. Subsequent attempts by the Pakatan Harapan administration in 2018 also failed to bear fruit.
On May 19 this year, Prime Minister Dato Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in a statement, said the Cabinet Special Committee on Anti-Corruption has agreed for the political funding bill to be put in place to prevent corruption and power abuse among politicians. — DayakDaily
