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Saturday, September 17, 2022

Where’s the draft of political finance bill, says Bersih




Where’s the draft of political finance bill, says Bersih


Bersih chief Thomas Fann says he expects “quite a bit of debate” and queries from civil society when the bill is tabled


PETALING JAYA: The electoral watchdog group Bersih has urged the government to involve the public in studying a proposed new law on political finance.

Bersih chief Thomas Fann said the government had not learnt its lesson from the delays over bills to ban party hopping and to end cigarette sales which he said were caused by tabling the bills without holding the necessary consultations beforehand.


Fann said civil society groups had yet to take a look at the bill on political finance, which law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had said would be fast tracked.

Fann said he expected “quite a bit of debate” from MPs and queries from civil society when the bill is tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.

“There is a high probability it will be referred to a parliamentary select committee for fine-tuning and feedback before it is tabled again,” he told FMT in an interview.

Fann said the public should view the bill beforehand so that “highly valuable feedback” could be considered before the legislation is tabled.

The bill seeks to regulate how political parties and politicians raise money to finance their election campaigns, daily operations and other activities.

Last Sunday, Wan Junaidi said the bill was expected to be tabled at the next Dewan Rakyat meeting in October.

The draft bill would be prepared quickly so that everyone concerned could be consulted.

However, Fann said Bersih had not yet been approached to provide input on the bill. “None of the civil society organisations that I know of have been approached,” he said.

Fann hoped the bill would be rushed through the Dewan Rakyat.

“Some of us are pragmatic enough to know that we probably won’t get a perfect bill, but if it is something that is 70% or 80% of what we think is a good bill, we are prepared to support it and as we go along we will try to improve it,” he said.


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