PETALING JAYA, Dec 9 — Malaysia needs to introduce a new law to make it clear what politicians can legally receive as “political donation”, and what would amount to bribery or corruption, non-governmental organisation Projek SAMA said today.
Projek SAMA member Wo Chang Xi said that it is not enough to just stop at ensuring that the Attorney General in Malaysia is accountable and transparent about the exercise of his discretion to drop corruption cases against politicians.
To truly prevent corruption from happening among politicians, he said Projek SAMA is also pushing for political financing reform in Malaysia which will require politicians and political parties to be transparent.
“So we list it as a recommendation, because it’s related to the whole environment. Even if we have a good prosecution, we have accountable discretion, corruption wouldn’t stop if the political environment is not transparent or being accountable to the public,” he told the media at a press conference here at the launch of Projek SAMA’s report “Do politicians still get away with corruption after 2018?”
The Projek SAMA report lists these three recommendations:
To make introducing a Political Financing Act a priority: This law should clearly distinguish what are “legitimate political donations” that politicians and political parties can receive, and what are bribes. It should also have disclosure requirements. This would help reduce grey areas that complicate the prosecution’s decisions and the public’s assessment of politicians’ conduct.
To reform the Election Offences Act 1954: Projek SAMA says the current ineffective regulation of election campaign expenses by election candidates needs to be reformed, to stop elections from being competitions in spending slush funds.
To introduce public funding for political parties or election candidates, based on the votes they received: To reduce over-dependence on private funding, which often leads to corruption.
Wo said many corruption cases in Malaysia remain hidden, as there is a lack of measures on political financing, including the lack of requirement for political parties to declare the donations received or their expenses.
Apart from closing “loopholes” in rules on election campaigns, he said having public funding can reduce the possibility of conflict of interest or corruption, as political parties will can reduce reliance on private donations.
“Because we know private donation sometimes comes with a price, you need to pay back, either by policies or patronage,” he said, noting that private donation typically meant “the richer you are, you can get more influence in the political arena.”
The other major recommendation in Projek SAMA’s report is to reform prosecutorial structure and oversight.
While saying that Malaysia must separate the roles of the AG and the public prosecutor, Projek SAMA said this separation is not enough to address concerns about prosecutorial independence in Malaysia.
Projek SAMA listed some preliminary recommendations for the Malaysian government’s plan to set up an independent prosecutorial body, such as best practices from other Commonwealth countries including the UK.
These preliminary recommendations include having an independent inspection body to regularly monitor and assess the prosecution’s decision in high-profile or politically sensitive cases; and to have the Parliament scrutinise prosecutorial conduct.
Projek SAMA also proposed the development of a code of conduct and prosecution guidelines, and the introduction of regular reporting on statistics on corruption cases (including charging rates, conviction rates, withdrawal rates, reasons for withdrawals).
Projek SAMA convenor Ngeow Chow Ying said the full and finalised recommendations along with comparative studies would be available in a report to be launched next year.
She said the group is also hoping to set up an online searchable public database on politicians’ corruption cases.
Projek SAMA’s report can be found on its website.
