KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan is making an example out of himself to drive home the necessity for political funding legislation, claiming he was a victim of the lack of such laws in the past.
Speaking at a forum on the matter last night, the Umno secretary-general shared how he was the subject of criminal action for supposedly receiving graft-tainted money linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.
The incident was related to compounds issued to him and 79 others for receiving funds allegedly linked to the development fund.
Ahmad said 41 individuals and entities had monies transferred to them seized by the government.
The Pontian MP said he and the other recipients accepted the sum assuming it to be the usual form of political funding from his party, and maintains that they had no knowledge of the origins of the funds.
“Recently, the Court of Appeal made an important decision declaring the seizure of money from a number of individuals as invalid as they did not know the source (of the money) and did not suspect that the money was not clean,” he said, adding that they had already spent the funds.
He was commenting on the subject during the Political Funding Act: Importance and Challenges forum organised by the Young MPs Caucus, the Dewan Rakyat speaker’s office, and the Institute for Leadership and Development Studies.
Ahmad said he had voiced concern about the hefty compounds issued to him and several others by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, stressing that some of the fines are up to 50 times the amount received.
“Is this fair? The fact is, we didn’t know where the money came from. To us, it was political funding from the Umno president (Datuk Seri Najib Razak). And, Najib has consistently said the funds were from an Arab prince.
The reason the others and I became victims was because there was no political funding act. If there had been a provision barring foreign political donations, for example, then it would have been clear that we could not receive (the money). But there wasn’t.”
Ahmad is facing money-laundering charges for not declaring taxes on the RM2 million he received from Najib in 2013. He was also issued a RM5 million compound by MACC in October 2019.
This is not the first time the lawmaker has pushed for a political funding law, having made a similar call last month.
During the forum yesterday, Ahmad said a proposal for such a law was first mooted in 2009 under the Barisan Nasional government, and again in 2016, at which time, he said, a draft of the bill was already prepared.
However, the bill was not tabled in Parliament following opposition from Pakatan Harapan component DAP, he said.
“We had a lot of engagement then. One of the requests made by the opposition DAP was not to discriminate against those who give political funding. This is because in the proposed act, there is a suggestion to name companies that provide funds.
“DAP was concerned that the government would blacklist these companies if they were found to be funding the opposition.”
On whether government-linked companies should be barred from funding political parties, Ahmad said based on principles alone, this should be the case.
“I think it is clear that the answer is no. This is because their money is public funds. And, the priority should be to channel these funds to the public without political intermediation.” – The Vibes, September 11, 2021
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