Civil society groups today urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to impose a two-term limit for the positions of prime minister and chief minister in his first 100 days in office.

They also called on him to restore the elections for local councillors and senators. These were among the demands made in a memorandum called 'Reforming Malaysia: 100 Days to Act'.

At a press conference organised by Suaram in Kuala Lumpur, executive director of the human rights body, Cynthia Gabriel, said some 60 organisations have endorsed the memorandum.

She added that they hope to submit the document to Abdullah if they are able to meet him for a dialogue to discuss the "collective hopes of reforming Malaysia".

In addition to restoring democratic institutions, the memorandum also prescribed specific steps on 10 other issues that the premier needed to address.

Cynthia said Abdullah must "legislate a Race Relations Act and form a Race Relations Commission" in order to tackle the issue of racism and racial discrimination.

Declare moratorium

Meanwhile, she said a moratorium must be declared on the privatisation of all projects as well as on the investments by the Employees Provident Fund.

This is until public monies and funds that have been "wasted and squandered" on failed "crony projects" can be accounted for, she explained.

On the issue of corruption, Cynthia said Abdullah should enact regulations for elected representatives to publicly declare their assets.

She added that the Anti-Corruption Agency should be reconstituted "to make it independent and accountable to Parliament".

The activist said the premier should also make good promises made during the 1999 general election with regards to additional support for Chinese and Tamil schools as well as Islamic religious education.

"Implement the increase of Chinese and Tamil schools together with subsidies, resources and facilities... (and) reinstate federal funding for Sekolah Agama Rakyat", she said.

On discrimination and violence against women, Cynthia said Abdullah should endorse and constitute a joint parliamentary and ministerial working group "to implement the Women's Agenda for Change (WAC)" that was launched four years ago.

Other areas which required the prime minister's attention were human rights, conditions of workers, police accountability, independent and transparent judiciary, press freedom, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Women's issues

Later, Hakam secretary-general Elizabeth Wong moderated a forum wherein three other panelists representing consumers, journalists, and women's groups spoke on the hopes of their respective groups.

Programmes manager for the All Women's Action Society (Awam) S Manohary spoke on the need for Abdullah to deal with two issues affecting women in particular.

She said the premier must take steps to achieve the uniformity of Syariah laws and in particular to amend those laws that discriminate against women.

Manohary added that he also needs to see that laws protecting women against violence and discrimination are duly passed.

Elizabeth said despite numerous letters being been sent to the prime minister seeking an appointment to hold a dialogue on the issues raised in the memorandum, they have yet to receive a reply.

"The last letter sent was on Nov 7 and we asked for a date this week to meet... We will continue to pursue this dialogue session with the prime minister. We're not going to give up," she added.