Rais on money politics: Might as well let highest bidder win

Umno must admit it has a problem with money politics and if left to fester, the party might as well hand posts to the highest bidder, said supreme council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

If the scourge of money politics should take further hold in the party , “it would be just better for Umno to have a tender system so that anyone who contributes the highest amount can be a leader,” he said.

He suggested the Barisan Nasional dominant component party look towards coalition partners MCA and Gerakan for ideas on how to stem money politics during party elections.

Dr Rais, who has announced his candidacy for a vice-president’s post, said both parties did not have such restrictions as requiring a certain number of nominations to contest for various posts.

“These parties don’t have as many restrictions as we do, but they are comparatively free of money politics,” he told reporters after meeting with diplomats from the Americas and Caribbean regions at the Marriott Hotel here on Tuesday.

One suggestion, Rais added, was reducing the number of nominations necessary to contest certain positions, now at 58 for the presidency and 39 for his deputy.

“Instead, anyone who gets between 10 to 15 nominations can contest. If we do away with the nominations altogether, there may be thousands of candidates,” he said.

Rais, who has so far obtained only six nominations, also lamented that the party was now “in the clutches of corporate personnel and businessmen,” judging from its culture of money politics.

On whether he would lodge a police report on his allegations of money politics, Rais said he could not as he did not have enough evidence of such wrongdoing.