KUALA LUMPUR: Umno has unanimously agreed on the need for regulations on political funding, said Tan Sri Annuar Musa.
Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, the party information chief said Umno agreed to having a law to regulate this and called for Opposition leaders to support the move.
"We have decided that we want to see a specific Act to regulate and control political donations, expenditures and funding.
"We did try it the last time before the 13th general election but there was resistance. Now again, we are all for it and it will be brought to Cabinet ministers.
"If upon consideration, they feel there needs to be Act, then it will be brought to Parliament, and that is why we ask for the Opposition to also be transparent," he said.
He added that the lack of a law and regulation before this has led for both sides of the political divide to “fight”.
Annuar also stressed that there was no such thing as the law being unfair or siding the Government.
"If you want to be fair, you should have a legal framework for this.
"For those who say it will be biased, you need to understand that ‘everyone’ is the government now.
"DAP is the (state) government in Penang, PKR in Selangor and even PAS (in Kelantan). We are all governments, so to say it gives advantage to the (ruling) Government is unfair," he said.
Annuar also commented on the recent announcement by the Election Commission (EC) on the proposed redelineation exercise ahead of the next general election.
"We are not happy about it. I myself personally lost 20 (Umno) branches.
"It’s sentimental. My hometown, the school I studied in, I will lose all of this," he said.
He added that Umno has encouraged its members to fight against the redelineation exercise as a party and individually.
"We will do whatever we can in accordance with the law to express our disapproval of this," he said.
Annuar, however, stressed that he understood the reason behind the EC's proposed redelineation plan.
"They want to make it more systematic and we can understand that, our main point of debate would certainly be based on sentiments," he added.
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