The problem is simple. For a variety of reason, political players on both sides of the divide do not want increased scrutiny of money flowing through their coffers. Having published academic work looking at the issue of political financing in Malaysia, Gomez notes that ‘Malaysia is one of the very few countries where parties own corporate enterprises’ and that other distortions to our system involve money-based factionalism, known as ‘money politics’, which is shaping how parties themselves operate.

This is a report by Sharaad Kuttan.