raising money for political parties

The Tories have announced that they have secured 75% of their general election war-chest. Jonathan Marland, the Tories’ chief fund-raiser, told the Financial Times today that they now had either received or been promised £17 million out of the £25 million that they want to raise. Labour said that they are confident their party coffers will swell by the next election, expected in five months time. The main British political parties generally have a well-devised strategy to raise funds. They know how much need to be raised, and they plan well ahead on how and where to get the money from. I wonder if the same are being done by Malaysian political parties? Perhaps the ruling coalition does not need to think too hard as they have the government’s machinery they can (ab)use. But what about the oppositions? The oppositions need to get their acts together. No longer can they depend on collections from ceramahs. They must plan how to raise sufficient funds and the strategy needs to take into consideration why people or organizations or companies should donate to those parties. For example, the Tories have devised a policy that is more business-friendly (according to them) and they are selling this policy to the City. Marland claimed that the City responded positively and this is one of the reasons he is confident he will raise enough money for the general election. Perhaps the oppositions should start thinking about appointing fund-raisers to work full-time for the parties. I did consider suggesting that the opposition parties’ own treasury should do fundraising. But knowing that party treasurers in most of the opposition parties were not appointed due to their ability to manage party finances, I see no use of making that suggestion.