The fourth and final session of Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022 was aired on the 29th of October 2022 on the topic of Amendment of Political Financing Law in Malaysia. The session was moderated by Mohamad Ika Danial, the Assistant Director of Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR), Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia and he was joined by 8 youth debaters aged 18 to 25 years old from all over Malaysia.
The debaters in this session addressed many issues related to the lack of law and regulations in political funding such as weak governance, accountability, transparency in regard to all activities carried by all political parties and politicians. Loopholes in the political financing ecosystem in Malaysia were also highlighted.
Apart from the issues, suggestions that may help strengthen and improvise the current political financing law in Malaysia were also proposed by the debaters. You are welcome to watch the recorded session here.
The Best Debater for this session was awarded to Aishwarya D. Menon, a 20 year old student from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI). She was deemed prodigious by the panel of judges for how strongly she highlighted about how, in GE13, there was no regulations on how much money is being spent in inter-party affairs and there was no legal repercussion back then for a certain politician for accepting millions of ringgit donated by an undisclosed foreign donor. She then suggested Malaysia requires a political financing framework that empowers both electorates and financers to circumvent corruption.
The Best Debater was selected by representatives from the organiser and partners. In the panel were Luke McGreevy, Senior Secretary, Australian High Commission in Malaysia; Chandran Ravi, Chief Operations Officer of Malaysiakini; Katharene Expedit, Programme Director, School of Professional Studies, Taylor’s College; and Azim Nadzari, Head, Training & Development of MIDP.
The judges collectively agreed that the young debaters had some great points such as; few debaters suggested there should be a two-pronged approach needed to strengthen transparency and accountability in the financing of politics.
"Debaters for this topic were well prepared. They are very cognisance of the potential abuse of political funding if they are not closely monitored. While some displayed calmness in their arguments, some were very passionate and full of zest. Malaysiakini is happy to note that youngsters are indeed getting into the game more aggressively than expected." Chandran Ravi, COO of Malaysiakini said.
Organised by Malaysiakini and KiniEvents, the Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022 series is joined by our partners, The Delegations of the European Union to Malaysia and Australian High Commission in Malaysia as Collaborative Partner, Bersih as Strategic Partner and Taylor’s College as the Youth Empowerment Partner.
This event is also supported by our Co-Partners, Malaysian Institute of Debaters and Public Speaking (MIDP), UndiSabah, Undi18, Impact Malaysia, The Risers, Institute for Research and Development of Policy (IRDP), University of Malaya Students Union (UMSU) and International Islamic University Malaysia Students Union, as well as Media Partners which are KiniTV, World of Buzz, Cilisos Media and Astro Awani.
You can watch the replay of the session here. The Most Popular Debater will be announced on 2nd December 2022.
Please visit the Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022 website for more information and for future sponsorship opportunities, please email to [email protected]
