EC 'powerless' to stop vote-buying

Vote-buying occurs in Malaysia but the Election Commission (EC) is not empowered to act against it, said its deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

"The law is not adequate for the EC to act and EC has no investigative powers but the police have all the powers to enforce the law," he told Transparency International Malaysia's (TI-M) conference on political financing in Malaysia today.

The jurisdiction of the EC, he explained, covers the political financing aspect from nomination day to polling day.

"The Registrar of Societies (ROS) administers the conduct of political financing by the parties," he said.

"Political financing and political corruption will lead to the erosion of democracy in Malaysia and the issue should be addressed by the police and ROS."

Abdul Wahab Abdul Aziz , the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director of excellence and professionalism, agreed that the police are the sole enforcer of the law when it comes to political financing.

Both the EC and MACC representatives said there is no specific provision to combat political financing and political corruption, under their respective enabling laws.

TI-M director for policy, campaigns and communication Josie Fernandez said it is unfortunate that there is no law to regulate political financing and corruption during elections.

"It is unfortunate that the people are the ones who will suffer if the issue is not addressed properly before the next election. There is grave public concern over financing of political parties in Malaysia as this issue is linked to a number of problems.

"These include limited legislation and poor regulation of political parties as well as the voluntary tradition of financing parties, without any need for public disclosure of the sources of this money."

The day-long national conference was attended by some 150 TI-M members, academicians, government officials and representatives of NGOs.

Political business

Professor Edmund Terence Gomez said public disclosure is a key requirement in curbing the use of money in politics. Without this, most other approaches would fail.

Gomez said there have been serious allegations of covert funding of politicians from local and foreign sources. This could contribute to peddling of influence and abuse of government resources to benefit the funders.

"Of greater concern are the mounting allegations of links between politicians and individuals involved with organised crime. There is also an uneven playing field during federal and state elections as some parties (have better access) to funds than others, a factor that undermines fair electoral competition.

"While these problems exist in most countries, in Malaysia, two other fundamental issues require further attention. Malaysia is one of very few countries in the world where political parties own corporate enterprises, a trend referred to as ‘political business'.

"There is also serious factionalism that is not based on differing ideological or political viewpoints but on who amongst political leaders has the greatest capacity to distribute funds to capture grassroots support."

Money-based factionalism, he added, is a phenomenon popularly known as ‘money politics'. It threatens the existence of parties and undermines public confidence in government leaders.