YOURSAY | ‘Use the report for public consultation and elicit extensive debates.’

PM: CEP's report may not be made public

Quigonbond: Based on what has been reported, this stance (of not making public the report of the Council of Eminent Persons, CEP) is unacceptable.

Please remember, Malaysians rooted for Pakatan Harapan because of the extensive reforms promised in terms of the Independent Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), independence of the judiciary, electoral reform, institutionalising select committees in Parliament, et cetera.

Malaysians still feel they have a stake in this and should be able to comment on the reforms proposed.

So far, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been great at putting out fires, but Malaysians have yet to see real seeds of reforms at the institutional level. Is there reason to be concerned that after the reviews are done, there will be no other reforms?

At the very least, use the CEP report for public consultation and elicit extensive debates. Malaysia can only be great if more people are enabled and empowered to take ownership of governance issues.

Caripasal: What is so secretive about the CEP report? We criticised former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for refusing to reveal the 1MDB accounts, and here we have Mahathir refusing to show the CEP report.

An all-important cabinet minister would still have to reveal his ministerial report in the cabinet, Parliament and to the press.

Now CEP has the authority of hiding its report from the public. No wonder many have said CEP is illegal and hijacked the cabinet’s role.

The purpose of producing a report is for the people to read, analyse and debate the suggestions proposed, no matter how sensitive they are. No one expects the suggestions to be implemented in full.

What is the point of setting up CEP if its report is not made available to the public?

Anonymous_1527925538: Many of the deliberations in the CEP are secret and thus should not be made public.

This not an audit report on a public institution or a government company where monetary fraud is suspected, like 1MDB, for which the public then has the right to know.

David Dass: I understand why the full report may not be published. It may not have been written with the intention that it be published. So the tone, style and even content may not be suitable for publication.

It is also possible that implementation of some of the proposals may require a tactical or gradual approach.

But a summary of the recommendations accepted for implementation could be published.

It would be strange if, after the hundreds of memorandum and meetings with the CEP and the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC), their recommendations disappeared into a bureaucratic void.

Unspin: We have to be careful what we wish for because the report may contain sensitive information that might not be good for business or our country's reputation. Considering 61 years of abuse, one can be certain that the report will not be pretty.

Having said that, the new government should consider publicising some chapters of the report that are not too sensitive.

RedHero: Why should everything and anything be made public now that Harapan is in power?

There are many sensitive recommendations made, or advice given, by the CEP which will be reviewed by Mahathir and the respective cabinet members. Not every piece of advice given by the CEP will be adopted.

I am fine with this approach so long as it will not be an arbitrary decision made by Mahathir alone, which I do not think will happen, as he has many capable ministers and the Harapan leadership council.

If the CEP results are made public, there will be unending debates and counter-debates by all the so-called experts, including some obsolete/expired experts, who think they are still relevant, just because they held certain key positions 50 years ago. Let the government continue to govern.

RZee: The CEP spoke with many departments and heads of such departments so that they can make their recommendations to the government and not to us, the rakyat.

I don't see why this report should be made public and it is not a question of transparency. Let the government who we voted in govern. So far they are doing a good job.

Sirach: We should not second-guess the prime minister every time he makes a decision that’s not populist in nature.

There could well be information in the CEP report which needs to be classified and is unsuitable for public dissemination. It may relate to sensitive issues of race and religion which could be misused by certain quarters for political mileage.

It might relate to relations with foreign countries which, again, would not be in the national interest to divulge. It could be a host of other information which ought to be seen only by a select few.

So let’s not be too hasty to paint Mahathir as a dictator or as reverting to type. We should respect his wisdom to do the right thing in the nation’s best interests.

Democracy does not automatically entitle the citizenry to unrestricted access to information. We have elected leaders to exercise judgement and discretion and act in the best interests of Malaysia. So let them.

Not Convinced: If Najib was still in power and a report of such import is made secret, most of us would be screaming our heads off. And we would see BN supporters rationalising why such a report should not be made public – that it contained sensitive information, yada, yada.

It looks like new Malaysia is very much like the old Malaysia – both the politicians and the rakyat.

Tropic Plunder: Yes, start behaving like an accountable and democratic government - make the report public, and explain your position on which recommendations you agree or disagree with.

Sulaiman Che Long: Please don’t blame Harapan. The arrangement is interim. Well, it was a marriage of convenience. No permanent enemies or friends, just permanent interest, remember?

He may be "nyanyok" (senile) but Malaysians have a long memory. We were scarred by his atrocities and a system build on his flawed philosophy and "oku-isation" of a gentle race. An unrepentant chronic self-confessed liar, he dumbed them down, enslaved them with fear on one hand and delude them with "ketuanan" on the other.

That brings me to the last point, trust. Once you lose it, you won’t get it back. There will be more deja vu coming from him but Mahathir is going soon, so let him be.

He will have to live with his past. Our future is bright. Undoing the evil empire takes much longer.

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