COMMENT | After the historic vote by the Malaysian electorate in GE14, we expect serious reforms to uphold human rights.

Many of these legislative reforms can be implemented during the 100 days while initiatives to bring other reforms can also be started during the 100 days. This will involve reconstituting truly democratic institutions and new standard operating procedures for the police and other enforcement agencies.

In order of priority, we expect urgent initiatives to implement the following in order to uphold human rights of Malaysians:

1. Abolish the death penalty in Malaysia, impose an immediate moratorium on all executions pending abolition and commute the sentences of all persons currently on death row;

2. Implement the Independent Police Complaints & Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and other recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to ensure transparency and accountability by the police and other enforcement agencies, so that police shootings and deaths in custody are minimised.

3. Repeal all laws that allow arbitrary declaration of emergency, torture, detention-without-trial and incommunicado detention including NSC, Sosma, Pota and Poca;

4. An end to race-based parties and policies. It is high time to replace race-based policies with needs-based measures that truly benefit the lower-income and marginalized sectors. With the current lack of ethnic diversity in the civil and armed forces, recruitment and promotion in these services be based on merit. At the same time, racist and hate speeches must be dealt with by appropriate laws and an Equality & Human Rights Commission.

5. Zero tolerance for corruption – The anti-kleptocracy campaign must extend to all cases of complaints against suspected corruption and abuse of power including, the super-rich politicians in Sarawak and the financial scandals during the decades of BN rule.

A truly independent Anti-Corruption Commission must be answerable to parliament and not to the Prime Minister with the power to recommend prosecutions for all offences of corrupt practice, cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power especially by the political elite; every discrepancy in the annual Auditor-General’s report must be accounted for and the officers in charge and political leaders responsible must pay for any negligence or corruption involved; political leaders who have been charged with corruption must step down while their case is pending in the courts...