Govt has yet to deliver all reform promises, says Bersih

PETALING JAYA: The Unity Government has fallen short of expectations in its first year as promised reforms are progressing at slowly while others have either been unfulfilled or broken, says electoral watchdog Bersih.

The government scored only 11 out of a possible 51 points or 21.6% in its first year in Bersih’s evaluation of the unity government's performance on electoral and institutional reforms.

"Specifically on electoral and institutional reforms, our overall assessment is that while the unity government has made commendable progress in some areas such as empowering the parliamentary special select committee, their performance is below expectations.

"Malaysian voters have been promised these reforms in their election manifestos just one year ago, and progress has been at snail’s pace," the Bersih steering committee said in a statement on Thursday (Nov 23).

It said that a post-election coalition government should not be an excuse to abandon all reform promises made in the Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional manifestos, especially as the two coalitions had four shared major promises, which have also yet to be implemented.

The four overlapping reforms were the separation of power for public prosecutor and attorney general; reform of public appointment process vetted by a special parliamentary committee; introduction of a Political Funding Act; and the devolution of power from federal to state.

"Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim must expedite these reforms.

"For the four overlapping reforms promised by both Barisan and Pakatan, there is no excuse to delay their implementation and a clear timeline must be spelled out by the Prime Minister," said Bersih.

It added that the unity government has also been "largely silent" on several unfulfilled promises, which include introducing 10-year term limits for prime ministers and chief ministers/mentris besar, legislating a Fixed Parliament Term Act, resolving extreme malapportionment by stipulating a clear 30% deviation limit from the state average size, placing key appointments such as Election Commissioners, Public Prosecutor, MACC chief and others to be reviewed by the Parliament Select Committee, introducing absentee ballots for voters outside constituencies especially Sabah and Sarawak living in peninsular Malaysia, and vice versa.

It also said that two major reform promises have been broken by the unity government which were equitable constituency development funds (CDF) irrespective of the MPs being pro-government or Opposition; and the repeal of draconian laws such as Sedition Act and Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma).

"The Home Minister even defended the existence or deployment of these archaic acts, despite years of campaigning against them.

"On CDF, the Madani Government ought to do better than previous governments that withheld CDF allocation from Opposition and Independent MPs," said Bersih.

Bersih, however, acknowledged and applauded the three reform pledges currently in progress which are the separation of attorney general and public prosecutor, Parliamentary Service Act and Government Procurement Act but noted that a clear timeline for implementation has yet to be announced by the Prime Minister.

Bersih also urged the Prime Minister to deliver outstanding reform pledges and said that although the unity government fell short of expectations, Bersih would continue to engage with the government, Parliament and the relevant stakeholders to advocate for the reforms, as well as to monitor and check and balance the progress.

"We are cognisant that the Unity Government is likely to have another four years to fully fulfil its election promises and that any enactment or amendment to legislations require time for consultation, drafting and tabling and it is our hope that we will see the fulfilment of more reforms," it said.