MAY 29 — Since Malaysia Day last September, the administration of
Prime Minister Najib Razak has undertaken a whirlwind of legislative and
policy reforms, making Mr Najib arguably the most reformist Malaysian
prime minister ever.
Political pundits remark that the rushed reforms which were
undertaken without consultation with key stakeholders are a sign that a
general election is imminent, perhaps to be held in less than two
months.
Over the course of the last six months there have been a record
number of legislative reforms including: repeal of the infamous Internal
Security Act; amendments to the University and University Colleges Act
and the Printing Presses and Publications Act; announcement of a minimum
wage policy as well as the passing of the Security Offences Bill and
Peaceful Assembly Act.
Despite the current air of optimism, the sincerity of the government
to effectively implement lasting reform has repeatedly been called into
question. Government critics cite the lack of consultation and the short
time frame within which legislative reform has taken place as evidence
that the reforms are merely political ploys designed solely to gain
traction with voters.
Whatever the agenda, the many legislative and policy revisions have
only occurred at the surface level, yet to be backed up by structural
changes reinforced by increased transparency, scrutiny and other
monitoring mechanisms. The second and most important component of
political reform will involve reorganisation of Malaysia’s enforcement
agencies and institutions, namely the police, judiciary and bureaucracy.
If this second stage fails, political reforms will remain only as idle
rhetoric.
The government’s conduct at the recent Bersih 3.0 rally for free and
fair elections indicates that this second stage of reform is far from
completion. Although the Peaceful Assembly Act came into force just days
prior to the rally, there was little adherence to its provisions.
Before the rally, police rejected organisers’ notification of a
peaceful sit-in and obtained a court order to stop it taking place. This
ruling was blatantly in breach of Section 14 of the newly enacted
Peaceful Assembly Act, which declares police can only impose conditions
but not ban a planned peaceful public assembly from taking place. The
police could have imposed restrictions or conditions on the date, time
and duration of assembly; the place or manner of the assembly. Failure
to comply with such restrictions is an offence under the act, punishable
with a fine up to RM10,000.
In the absence of the police imposing lawful conditions upon public demonstrations, any public assembly can proceed as planned.
Instead of utilising the new law, police employed heavy-handed
measures including the unrestricted use of tear gas, unlawfully
destroying video-recording devices, and in some cases the unwarranted
use of excessive violence against individual demonstrators.
One hope for a viable sustainable democracy in Malaysia will involve a
systemic overhaul of government institutions resulting in greater
transparency and accountability. The prospects of this happening under
the current Najib administration are questionable due to the deep-rooted
culture of corruption and rent-seeking in the upper echelons of
government.
The recent National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal sheds light on a
2007 government allocation of RM250 million for a cattle rearing
project which lost millions of ringgit every year. Beyond the monetary
wastage, the scandal became yet another symbol of the nepotism that runs
rife in the tender for government projects: the NFC was chaired by
Mohamed Salleh, the husband of Women, Family and Community Development
Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
Common practices such as awarding government contracts without open
tenders, limited access to information and a close connection between
businesses and politics have only further developed an ethos of
corruption.
The sad truth is that key institutions, big corporations and the
civil service are all embedded with supporters of the ruling government,
whose interests are too deeply entrenched to allow for reform from the
inside-out.
It has also been an uphill battle for the Pakatan Rakyat opposition
party to gain a foothold on the political scene. Despite the “political
tsunami” in the 2008 general elections which saw, for the first time,
the demise of the ruling Barisan Nasional’s two-third majority in
parliament, politics in Malaysia are stunted by ethnic and religious
divisions — evidenced by the lack of a clear manifesto of any political
party. In the absence of a two-party system, democracy is doomed to be a
pipe dream.
However, this pessimism need not set the tone for Malaysia’s
democratic future. There are signs of an emergent political maturity
evidenced by inaugural debates between members of opposing political
parties. A widely televised political debate on the issues faced by
Malaysian Chinese was held in February between the president of the
Malaysian Chinese Association — the main Chinese party in the ruling
Barisan Nasional coalition — and the secretary-general of the opposition
Democratic Action Party.
While state-controlled media remain hesitant to report the true
sentiments of a large proportion of the electorate, the internet has had
no such qualms. Alternative news sites such as Malaysiakini and The
Malaysian Insider have done much to equalise the flow of information.
There has also been an awakening from political apathy, predominantly
among younger, urban voters. This new generation of voters, increasingly
disillusioned with economic and social disparities caused by government
policies, is expressing its concern via the aforementioned alternative
news and political blogs. It was this demographic that turned out in
full force during the Bersih 3.0 rally.
In the past, Malaysians have been reticent about their political
views. The more than 100,000-strong crowd at the rally suggests that
this reticence is falling away.
The manner in which the 13th general election is conducted will set
the stage for Malaysia’s democratic future. This will be the final test
for the Najib administration’s sincerity in providing true reforms for
Malaysia and leading the country into a more democratic future. Many
Malaysians fear that the next election will be the dirtiest yet, with
the ruling government using all possible tricks and manipulation at its
disposal to gain a favourable outcome including the use of “phantom”
votes and blatant gerrymandering.
These fears will prove unfounded if the government ensures that the
elections are conducted fairly by ensuring electoral transparency,
inviting international observers to monitor the polling and results, and
by scrubbing the electoral roll of nonexistent voters. Whether the slew
of recent reforms is due to a genuine concern for Malaysia’s democratic
future or from fear of losing the forthcoming election, it is clear
that the public pressure exerted by ordinary Malaysians is slowly
changing the political landscape of Malaysia. — The Bangkok Post.
* Justina Chen is a research and policy analyst at the Centre
for Public Policy Studies, Malaysia. This article was originally
published by the East-West Centre in Asia Pacific Bulletin Number 165,
on May 24, 2012.
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