Bersih welcomes PM's openness, tells opposition to buck up

Bersih has welcomed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s pledge to improve his administration’s performance after scoring a dismal “D” in the electoral watchdog’s midterm report card.

“The prime minister’s positive feedback together with his promise to improve in the future show his openness towards criticism,” said its chairperson Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz.

On the same note, Bersih also urged the opposition to improve and enhance its role as an effective check-and-balance to the government.

Yesterday, Anwar likened Bersih’s grading to sitting for the UPSR examination and vowed to score an A in the SPM examination.

This response courted flak from various quarters who interpreted it as the prime minister ridiculing and being dismissive of the evaluation.

Faisal explained that the “D” grade or “45.8 percent” meant that there was “very minimal” progress in the implementation of reforms.

“There is a huge gap between the promises in the (Pakatan Harapan) manifesto and what is being implemented,” he added.

However, he pointed out that the report card acknowledged there has been some progress with regard to institutional reforms such as the passing of the Public Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2023, the amendments to the Audit Act 1957, strengthening parliamentary select committees, and other agendas which are still in the pipeline.

“I wish to remind everyone that this performance report is temporary, which means the government has three years to make improvements (before its term ends).

“In the report, we also included calls to make enhancements, including drafting a Parliament Services Act, finalising the separation of the attorney-general and public prosecutor’s offices, amending the Election Offences Act 1954, to provide equal allocations to all MPs, appointing heads of critical institutions through a Parliament committee, and so forth.

“We also graded the opposition’s performance, which included a call for them to improve to serve as an agent of check-and-balance with quality,” he added.

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