Umno man denounces ‘satanic’ money politics
Saifuddin Abdullah calls for regulation of political funding.
(Free Malaysia Today) – 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.
