Today is not World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) 2006. Wednesday was. Shall everyone now get back to business as usual and wait for the WPFD 2007 or until another media agency or journalist is persecuted to reiterate our objection to the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and our demand for a Freedom of Information Act?

In a way, that seems destined. Journalists and civil societies have been repeating such calls every year, and the opposition parties every election. You cannot have the PPPA repealed and FIA enacted unless you control a parliamentarian majority. Practically, that leaves us two possibilities: a change of the government's heart or a change of government.

The good news we have learned from Dr Mahathir Mohamad (like the Tunku) is that former prime ministers see press freedom as their darling after retirement. The bad news is even if Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad soon joins the club, his successor will continue to control the media like he does now. So you cannot count on conversion of former prime ministers.

And you'd better not count on the Opposition. Not only because that they will likely again fail to break BN's two-third majority come the next election but that even if they win the power in seven or eleven years' time, you would be nave to think press freedom would be amongst their first priorities. (But they need not worry about printing permits for party organs then because the mainstream press would be on their side)

Am I too cynical? The Opposition's call for local elections has been as consistent as their opposition against the PPPA but have you seen any local election in Kelantan since 1990 or in Terengganu from 1999 to 2004?

A three-step road map

A long journey needs more than a great destination. It needs a road map and stopovers so that we may count our progress. Expecting a sudden change of the government's heart or government is like hoping for a charted helicopter, a luxury we simply don't have.

When a promise like 'special commission for the police' - spelled out specifically twice in a 2004 manifesto - cannot be kept, you'd better not expect that vague sales talk like 'your opinions and views continue to matter' will be translated into any meaningful reform.

The faithful of press freedom must therefore make a road map based on this realistic assumption: that there will be no change of PM or the ruling coalition. But we may still possibly make change. Here is a three-step road map thought out by backward induction.

Step 3: Government/Private Member's Bill

The step before any reform in media laws is to have bills which can be tabled by the government or individual members of parliament.

All laws that have been passed so far took the form of government bills but private member's bills, allowed under the House's Standing Order 49(1), are certainly not a waste of energy.

If it is scheduled for debate and votes, a private member's bill forces parliamentarians from all parties to make a stand and leave a record. Even if it is killed off by a filibuster, the tactic of exhausting a parliamentary session by deliberate long-winding speeches, a private member's bill can still embarrass the political opponents.

Haji Hadi Awang, then PAS MP, shrewdly demonstrated the usefulness of even a filibustered private member's bill in October 1999 by proposing constitutional a amendment to impose the death sentence for Muslim apostates.

In April 2000, BN's Perlis state government took that cue to pass a law that sends anyone intending to leave the Islamic faith into a rehabilitation camp for a year.

Step 2: Parliamentary Select Committee

The step immediately before is, of course, to have the bill drafted. The conventional way, and how we have got most of our draconian laws, is to have it prepared by the concerned minister/ministry, with the aid of Attorney-General's Chambers, then approved (with changes if necessary) by the cabinet.

Parliamentary debates normally change nothing of the content unless they are heated enough to force the Executive to withdraw the bill for amendments.

However, there are ready channels for more democratic and better quality legislation. In 2004, following the horrible deaths of two ten-year old girls at the hands of a rapist, a seven-member Parliamentary Select Committee was formed - headed by the then Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Radzi Sheikh Ahmad - to collect views via public hearings towards amending the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

Two other select committees have also been established to collect input and build consensus with a more general task, both headed by a minister. The one on National Unity and National Service, comprised Maximus Ongkili and 11 other members to study necessary changes both in policies and laws related to the matter.

The third select committee, also consisting of 12 members headed by Bernard Dompok, aims to discuss issues on values, ethics and integrity of the community based on the National Integrity Plan.

The merits of select committees are obvious. They invite public participation and build consensus across parties (each have members from Barisan Alternatif and DAP). The output can then be tabled as a government bill, rather than a private member's bill, hence allowing the government to claim credit.

Step 1: Parliamentary Caucus

As desirable as they are, select committees are rare. The three above are the only three we have had since the 1970s. In that sense, the Abdullah government must be given due credit.

However, if Abdullah really cares to listen to the truth and fight graft with the media and the citizenry as the government's eyes and ears, he must reform the current media laws, not only the notorious PPPA, but also Communications and Multimedia Act, the Official Secret Act and other restrictive instruments.

And the time has long been due for a Freedom of Information Act (FIA). If Abdullah is still serious about his reforms, press freedom must be the task of the fourth select committee.

But the nation cannot wait forever until the cabinet makes a decision. Even two separate commissions cannot persuade the PM to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission.

We therefore need the concerned parliamentarians to take another step and that is to form a parliamentary caucus, an informal grouping of parliamentarians bonded by the same policy interests. There are two caucuses currently, one on Human Rights and the other one on democracy in Burma.

Unlike select committee, caucuses can have an unlimited number of parliamentarians and hence could be even more representative. It can also be more permanent than a select committee, the term of which is limited to the completion of its tasks. In other words, it could act as an informal substitute for a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Media until we have one.

A parliamentary caucus can therefore be the drive to push for a select committee in the House and in its absence, carry out its roles whenever possible. It can hold regular meetings with journalists and civil society on the state of media freedom before and during every parliamentary session.

It can invite the media community to help draft the amendment bill for the PPPA or completely new law which may later be presented as a private member's bill.

Consolidating efforts

The road map is not something completely new. Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang has called for a parliamentary committee system including a Select Committee on Mass Media when thanking the royal address on May 20, 2004. BN MP Zaid Ibrahim expressed his wish this February to table a private member's bill on a Press Council.

BA in its 2004 manifesto vowed to abolish PPPA and enact a FIA. Many BN MPs have also expressed support for transparency and accountability. We should have no shortage of members for a parliamentary select committee or caucus on freedom of information and expression.

The civil society is doing its part in pushing for legal reform. The National Coalition for Freedom of Information Act is already drafting a Freedom of Information Act. I am sure groups like the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), the Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) and Charter2000-Aliran are certainly ready to give their input for a new press law which will be better received than a Press Council.

Efforts of both the parliamentarians and civil societies need to be consolidated and synthesised. Malaysia will not move any closer to the end of printing permits and other menaces of the PPPA, OSA and their ilk if parliamentarians take no initiatives to link themselves with the civil society's impassioned line.

On Wednesday, 37 civil society groups and 92 concerned citizens (journalists, activists and academics) endorsed the World Press Freedom Day's Five Points Demand. The Deputy Minister of Internal Security Foo Ah Kiow is certainly wrong to dismiss it as a minority's demand.

But he could not be more right to point out that while a select committee needs the support of the House's majority, a caucus can start with as few as two concerned parliamentarians.

Will we then see something before next World Press Freedom Day or general elections, Messrs/ Madams Parliamentarians?

WONG CHIN HUAT, is the chair for Writer Alliance for Media Independence (Wami). He currently reads politics in University of Essex, UK .