NAJIB'S 'SATANIC' FUNDS: Umno man condemns use of 'dirty money by the rich to control politics

PETALING JAYA - Former deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah today backed the idea of having tighter regulations on political funding in order to break the “satanic vicious cycle” of money politics.

In an article for his column in Sinar Harian, Saifuddin said: “If money politics is not controlled, some will use money to get power, and will then use the power to get more money to get more power. The cycle will go on.”

His remarks came in the wake of controversy over allegations that funds from 1MDB flowed through Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts. There is widespread suspicion that the money was used to fund Barisan Nasional’s election campaign.

Saifuddin, now the CEO of the Global Movement of Moderates, was the Deputy Minister of Higher Education before losing his Temerloh parliamentary seat to PAS in the 2013 election. He is still an Umno member.

He acknowledged that politics required money, but he said regulations were needed because political funds tended to be misused in systematic but complex ways.

“The misuse of funds leads to further negative practices, which include bribery, the use of dirty money and the control of politics by the rich,” he said.

He called for laws that regulate the sources of political funds and the spending of political parties on community programmes, general elections and party elections.

He said there should be regulations against the use of official positions to get money and to use public assets for political purposes. These regulations should cover funds used by political parties as well as by individual politicians, and the spending should be audited, he added.

Saifuddin called for new laws as well as amendments to current laws. One amendment he proposed was to have a clear definition of the term “party worker” and to state what allowances such a worker would be entitled to. This would prevent “voters from becoming party workers” and thus expose political parties to charges of vote buying, he said.

“Money politics has to be stopped immediately, and legislation is one way this can be achieved,” he said. - FMT