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How to innovate policy from the opposition bench

The originally-intended Malayan political structure enshrined by the federal constitution, one that was very much so a ‘cut-and-paste’ inheritance of the Westminster system, though well-intended, has never functioned as it was meant to.

Since independence, with the Alliance party and subsequently BN’s race-based structure at the helm driving the adoption and evolution (or lack thereof), it is not unusual that we see the weaknesses of our political eco-system today.  One could describe it as a ‘first world vehicle, third world driven’.

Many have written about the ethno-communal ‘service’ and representation model that politician from all sides pander to. However, not many have written about the need to break away from it, much less suggest how to.

Instead, to maintain support and/or relevance, politicians have resorted to outdoing their opponent in the ‘public service industry’, moreover perpetuating the ethno-communal exclusivity factor, that is Chinese serving the Chinese, Malay serving the Malay, Indian serving the Indian. Simply speaking, it is BN’s blue ocean strategy of maintaining demand so for them to maintain their profitable supply.

An elected rep's double job

Ethno-communal elements aside, this practice not only deprives legislators from focusing on their constitutionally prescribed duties of policy making, but with the same stroke stunts the growth and advancement of public institutions and civil service.

The outcome being a rut whereby; legislators are glorified civil servants without the necessary influence in government. This, while the civil service stagnates by virtue of a lack in innovation from supposed policy makers because they are too busy doing the work of civil servants.

There is little doubt that there has been a monopoly of policy-making, driven by hegemony of BN rule. Legislators outside of the executive branch, both in government and opposition over the years have been systematically ‘managed out’ of policy crafting processes.

Needless to say, those occupying benches of ‘His Majesty’s loyal opposition’ are more often than not silenced outside of the legislature through draconian laws, and inside the legislature through myriads of constraints imposed by authority of legislative speakers obedient to the executive branch.

The legislature that we inherited from the British was designed to be a ‘bottom-up’ electorate driven system, but have over the years been beaten into the ‘top down’ government driven centralised system that we have today.

The electorate knows no other alternative and have been brainwashed into the mentality of ‘government knows best’; legislators have had no alternative but to adopt the reactive and opposing culture to remain relevant. All this spells a trajectory that is further and further away from democracy as we know it.  

A mock democracy

Whilst on paper, we are a fully-fledged constitutional monarchical-parliamentary democracy, we are in practice and reality an authoritarian ruled electoral autocracy.

Those in power will often rebut this citing the increasing opposition representation in parliament and the several states helmed by the federal opposition. The truth is, this is due to the maturity of the electorate outstretching the foul-playing capabilities of BN, forging a new horizon in our political landscape, in spite of the prevailing system.

With this new horizon, we are faced with a dilemma that is a blessing in disguise. In Perak, Pakatan Rakyat garnered a whopping 54.7 percent of popular vote in the general elections.

Although unable to form state government, the electorate’s pre-election expectation of Pakatan’s policies did not falter post-election.

The age old and entirely legitimate reasoning of the Opposition having neither resources nor remit to deliver policies, didn’t seem sufficient on all fronts. For the first time, DAP and Pakatan assemblypersons had to fulfil the seemingly impossible expectations of delivering policies from opposition benches.

With the BN expected to serve the same old wine, and in the same old bottle, Pakatan not only has to think, strategise and act outside the box, but were compelled to throw the box away altogether. Pakatan Perak has to continue working the ‘public service industry’, as well as develop a strategy of affecting policy changes, somehow.

Exploiting BN’s weakness to show Pakatan strengths

It was decided that new, previously unexplored areas of policies must be brought to the fore. Matters uncontested in the state assembly in the past such as public transport reforms, sustainable urban planning, decentralisation of governance, progressive agriculture and aquaculture, growth versus distribution policies are amongst the policy areas that the Opposition raised within as well as outside the state assembly.

To no surprise, the government was not able to answer neither could they contest with Pakatan’s ideas. A new political phenomenon emerged as a result; the Opposition had a monopoly in a vast array of policy areas.

Whilst this raises the bar significantly in the limited debates in the state assembly, it means very little if there were not to be matching awareness-building campaigns targeting the general public. The best way to achieve this was through reactive connections of real life experiences of the electorate with these new, often complex policies.

Taking one area of policy as an example, in the assembly, assemblypersons will talk about the failures of public transport providers and question the very fundament of the operating and regulatory framework in which the provision stands on.

Besides crony capitalism, legislators also critique the 100 percent privatised nature of the service providers as well as the overly-centralised policy and/or decision making on all matters of public transport. Pakatan Perak even boldly offered a complete re-thought and restructured view of the regulative framework for the provision of public transport in Perak.

As the state cabinet as well as the BN backbenchers were not as intellectually well-endowed as the PR line-up; the BN Menteri Besar took a pre-emptive strike of containing the embarrassment of having credible solutions to long standing problems coming from opposition benches.

He did so by setting up the first ever state level bi-partisan policy committee on public transport, chaired by an Executive Council member, with three committee members each from both sides of the house.

In short, the opposition managed to pressure the government into accepting Pakatan legislators in a non-statutory policy crafting body; which is unprecedented in the history of state level politics across the federation.

Politicking for the people’s interest

Since then, the committee has been functioning, albeit slow and lacking in the bite that Pakatan wishes for. It has also evolved into a platform for the BN state government through the Pakatan committee members to voice out dissatisfactions towards their federal counterparts on all public transport matters. The committee, if the minutes were to be made public, would demonstrate that Pakatan committee members are the main drivers of the discussions.

Though not all, a great deal of the suggestions made within the committee by Pakatan members have been carried out; all are towards a bigger picture and long term goal set by Pakatan committee members and state leadership. This will be elaborated but not at this juncture. This is one perceptive ‘win’ for BN Perak and many practical and policy ‘wins’ for PR Perak as well as the people of Perak.

Perak was seen as the most hotly-contested state and one most likely to be recaptured by Pakatan pre-GE13. It was also where Pakatan was born, out of the balance of seats resulted in the GE12 which necessitated full commitment from all assemblypersons from DAP, PAS and PKR to form government.

It was also the origin of many policy and administrative innovations. Though Perak was not recaptured post GE13, Perak has once again proven, despite all that is said, speculated, and critiqued; it is capable of pushing the frontiers of Malaysian politics, even from opposition benches.

This also calls to attention that the role of Opposition state assemblyperson, is no longer just one of contribution to the ‘public service industry’; and not only just proposing innovative ideas and solutions, but also one that seeks innovative ways of delivering those policies.

Yes, even from opposition benches.


HOWARD LEE is the Pasir Pinji assemblyperson and director of policy for Perak DAP. He also runs a Perak-based think-tank named Prospect, focusing on state level governance policies with a heavy emphasis on public engagement. His dream is to make political nerdiness cool.

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