THE Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) congratulates the unity government for some of the institutional reforms it carried out in its first year, and urges more as promised by government coalitions and parties, in particular Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN).
We think the formation of a post-election coalition government must not be an excuse to abandon all reform promises in the two blocs’ manifestos, especially given that:
a) There are four major shared promises in BN and PH’s manifestos that have not been fully implemented;
b) The prime minister was PH leader when these promises were made to voters.
Specifically on electoral and institutional reforms, our overall assessment is that while the unity government has made commendable progress in some areas, such as empowering parliamentary special select committees, its performance is below expectations. Malaysian voters were promised these reforms just one year ago, and progress has been at snail’s pace.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim must expedite these reforms. For the four overlapping reforms promised by both BN and PH, there is no excuse to delay their implementation. A clear timeline must be spelled out by the prime minister.
The four overlapping reforms are:
a) Separation of the public prosecutor and attorney-general’s powers;
b) Reform the public appointment process vetted by a special parliamentary committee;
c) Introduce a political funding law; and
d) Devolution of power from federal to state.
We acknowledge and applaud that three reform pledges are in progress (separation of attorney-general and public prosecutor’s powers, the Parliamentary Services Act, and the Government Procurement Act) but a clear timeline for implementation has yet to be announced by the prime minister.
The unity government has also been largely silent on several unfulfilled promises, which include introducing 10-year term limit for prime ministers and chief ministers/menteris besar; legislating the Fixed-Term Parliament Act; resolving extreme malapportionment by stipulating a clear 30% deviation limit from the state average size; placing key appointments such as election commissioners, public prosecutor, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief to be reviewed by a parliamentary special select committee; and introducing absentee voting for electors outside their home constituencies, especially those from Sabah and Sarawak living in peninsular Malaysia and vice versa.
Two major reform promises have been broken by the unity government – equitable constituency development funds irrespective of MPs’ loyalties and the repeal of draconian laws such as the Sedition Act 1948 and the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
The home minister even defended the existence or deployment of these archaic acts, despite years of campaigning against them.
On constituency development funds, the Madani government ought to do better than previous governments that withheld allocations from opposition and independent MPs.
Bersih’s engagements with authorities continue
We urge Anwar to deliver, with a clear timeline and adequate resources, these outstanding reform pledges:
1. Enactment of the Parliamentary Services Act
2. Enactment of a Political Financing Act
3. Enactment on the amendment to the Election Offences Act 1954
4. Constitutional amendment to affect a 10-year tenure limit for the prime minister
5. Enactment of the Fixed-Term Parliament Act
6. Separation of the attorney-general and public prosecutor’s powers
7. Transparency and parliamentary oversight in the appointment of key public officers
8. Review by parliamentary committee of the Sedition Act 1948, Official Secrets Act 1972, Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, Printing Press and Publication Act 1984, Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, and Sosma
9. An act to provide for equitable constituency development funds for all MPs
10. Recognition and empowerment of Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) shadow cabinet with allowance, research officers and access to ministries’ information
11. Amend the 13th schedule of the Federal Constitution to limit the deviation from the state average in the number of electors to no more than 30% to address the problem of super malapportionment
12. To form a task force comprising the Election Commission, parliamentary special select committee, experts and civil society groups to study the implementation of absentee voting for out-of-region (Sabah and Sarawak) and out-of-state voters.
Using our matrix to evaluate the unity government’s performance on electoral and institutional reforms, they scored 11 out of a possible 51 points, or 21.6%, in its first year.
Although the unity government fell short of our expectations, Bersih will continue to engage with the government, parliament and stakeholders to advocate for these reforms, as well as to monitor the progress.
We are cognisant the unity government will likely take another four years to fulfil its election promises, and that any enactment of or amendment to legislation require time for consultation, drafting and tabling.
We hope to see the fulfilment of more reforms. – The Vibes, November 23, 2023.
Bersih is a civil society group championing free and fair elections
