The Coalition for Good Governance calls upon all Malaysians to push for real institutional reforms as we celebrate the first anniversary of the March 8, 2008 general election. The Perak crisis is evidence of another attack on democracy whereby an elected legislature and government were dissolved by unelected institutions.
If this trend is not reversed, Malaysia may see military intervention come the next elections. To defend democracy, we need to have local council elections as a check and balance against the abuse of powers. Freedom of Information and Ombudsman offices need to be implemented immediately.
While the March 8 election opened up the imagination of the Malaysian people to demand for positive changes in all aspects, we believe the utmost urgent task is to ensure democratic institutional reforms that facilitate a healthy political process.
Competitive multiparty democracy is possible only when the citizens can both fully exercise their civil and political rights all the time and be able to elect governments at all levels in free and fair elections.
Until the March 8 election, our country was an electoral one-party state where the opposition could contest elections but hardly stood a chance to win power while the masses were silenced with draconian laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA) and controlled by propaganda fed by the mainstream media.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s huge landslide win in 2004 was a testimony to how much Malaysians wanted a change from the previous government which saw the weakening of our democratic institutions including Parliament, the judiciary, the attorney-general chambers, the police, the civil service, the media and the universities.
However, it was Abdullah’s failure to fulfill his reform promises that built up the public’s anger and frustration. Three major protests – against inaction on judicial fixing, electoral corruption, and the marginalisation of the Indian community – eventually led to the political tsunami which saw BN losing its customary two-thirds majority and the control of five states, both unprecedented.
The emboldened opposition in Parliament and in the five state governments have undeniably brought sea-changes to Malaysian politics by introducing many people-friendly policies on a host of matters including water supply, land titles, hillside development and poverty eradication. Red tape, corruption and incompetence in state administrations were also successfully cut down.
Unfortunately, little institutional reforms have taken place. At the federal level, BN seems recalcitrant to reforms. Abdullah’s last three flagship ‘reforms’ – the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Judicial Appointment Commission (JAC) and the Special Complaint Commission (SCC) which is a pathetic substitute for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) – have turned out to be great disappointments.
Also, the BN government not only refused to repeal or review the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), it has persecuted its critics with the ISA together with the Sedition Act, the Police Act and other repressive laws.
On the other hand, Pakatan Rakyat must be credited for attempting to table a private member’s bill on Freedom of Information in Selangor which was unfortunately buried in the legislative order and never had a chance to be debated let alone voted upon.
At the state level, this new competitiveness has not brought about a competition on institutional reform. Disappointingly, the Pakatan Rakyat state governments were quick to abandon their commitment to have local government elections, which falls within the state’s jurisdiction, citing legal obstacles posed by federal laws.
The consideration was apparently more political than legal, as there have been suggestions to create multiparty councils, such as the appointment of local councilors based on results of ‘mock elections’ or allocation of the seats based on parties’ vote share in the general elections.
Instead, the Pakatan Rakyat state governments have preferred to distribute the local councilors amongst the parties with about one-third left to civil society or members of public. Only in Perak did the state government boldly introduce elections for village heads, but limited only to Malay villages.
While one year may be too short, CGG hopes that other Pakatan Rakyat state governments will warm up to the idea of having state legislation on Freedom of Information in line with their electoral promises of transparency and accountability. PR has also continued the BN practice of denying opposition members constituency development funds.
What is most disturbing after March 8 is the eagerness of both sides to overturn the March 8 election results through non-election means such as the on-going crisis in Perak.
In Perak, not only was the legitimate state government threatened by a loss of majority through defections, its request to dissolve the assembly was refused. A new state government was hastily appointed by the palace before any motion of no-confidence was passed.
This has resulted in the stalemate today with two governments - one recognised by the Sultan of Perak, the state bureaucracy and the federal government, and the other by the democratically- elected state assembly.
In the latest development, the state bureaucracy and the police have openly obstructed the legitimate state assembly from convening its meeting in the house, resulting in the first under- the-tree assembly in modern history.
By obstructing the state assembly from functioning – which is the very basis of an elected government in a parliamentary system - the unelected institutions of bureaucracy and police have actually committed a mutiny against a democratic government.
The constitutional crisis is now deepened on the third front with the judiciary and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission trying to restrain the speaker of the house and intervene in the internal business of the legislature. Under the Malaysian parliamentary system, the legislature has its own privileges which no other institution can have jurisdiction over. An errant speaker can therefore be penalised only by the legislature or the electorate.
What happened in Perak is therefore a joint attack on the elected assembly and government by a host of unelected institutions – the bureaucracy, the police, the judiciary, the MACC. This is a dangerous trend for if a deadlock happens at the federal level after the next general elections, would some parties turn to the military to intervene?
In Selangor, the invasion of the private life of an executive councilor, Elizabeth Wong, has been utilised ruthlessly as a way to destabilise the state government, forcing her to offer her resignation from the executive and legislature.
An attack on the private life of a Kedah executive councilor has led to his resignation from both the executive and legislature. A number of his colleagues have alleged that they were bribed to cross the floor and bring down the government which would collapse by losing five lawmakers.
Coups and mutiny by unelected institutions, gutter politics targeting politicians’ private lives and bribery allegations all show that our democracy is far from consolidated after March 8. As a matter of fact, if the zeal to employ unconstitutional and undemocratic means in power struggle continues, we may land up in worse political crises with the possibility of emergency rule, military coups and dictatorship.
This first anniversary of March 8 yesterday is therefore a call for us to defend the fruit of democratisation thus far with democracy and through institutional reforms so that the power will rest with the citizens and never in the hands of any unelected institutions.
CGG strongly urges Malaysians to affirm constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy in Perak, insisting on fresh elections to solve the current impasse. We must not have a precedent where unelected institutions can install the government of the day.
We also call for more institutional reforms – not merely policy reforms – in states now run by Pakatan Rakyat. Local elections should be the top on the list.
The writer is chairperson, Coalition for Good Governance.