Building democracy, returning people’s confidence – Charles Santiago

IN a functioning democracy, politics delivers for everyone – irrespective of race, ethnicity or social class.

In direct contrast, our recent experience in Malaysia has been nothing but a nightmare. 

We saw the democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government being thrown out of power after 22 months, with the political parties that lost the elections successfully forming the current government via the Sheraton Move. 

And at present, a small group of Umno stalwarts, popularly known as the “Court Cluster”, are pressuring Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to call for an early general election. 

Clearly, just like the opportunistic Sheraton Move, the court cluster wants to negotiate itself out of jail sentences and, more importantly, to take charge of Umno and government after the next general election. 

We now see a trust deficit from ordinary Malaysians following the hijacking of democracy, as it only works for the ruling elite and their vested interests.

Our faith in the integrity of our democratic institutions is fading fast.

While we did see a sliver of hope Thursday, with the unanimous passing of the anti-hopping bill, there need to be a few more democratic changes.

The first being the introduction of fixed-term elections, where the date of the election is predetermined, just like in other countries to stop opportunistic elites from pressuring and holding a government ransom. 

For example, in the United States, the presidential elections are held on the first Tuesday of November every four years. In the Philippines, every six years on the second Monday of May. 

In Australia, the general elections occur every four years on the fourth Saturday in March. 

There is also a need to cap the maximum duration of a prime minister to two terms to ensure no premier gets too comfortable warming the seat. This would also keep a lid on the abuse of powers. 

Following the misuse of powers by former attorney-general Apandi Ali in exonerating former prime minister Najib Razak, there is a need to ensure the AG doesn’t also hold the position of a public prosecutor. 

Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perception Index ranks Malaysia in the 62nd place out of 180 countries, falling five points from the previous year. As such, there needs to be a political funding bill to prevent corruption, cronyism, and corporate capture by large and powerful entities.

There must be full transparency on donor details to hold political parties accountable and a cap on foreign donations made to political parties, such as in Singapore and Australia. 

These reforms may look too ambitious but are crucial to bring back the confidence of the people on the democratic practices in the country. 

The prime minister has an option to go down in the country’s history as a reformer. But if he remains complacent, Ismail Sabri will lose his chance to make the push for our institutions to work for the people. – The Vibes, August 1, 2022

Charles Santiago is Klang MP