Road to Reform?

We may attribute it either to the Ramadan spirit that encourages generosity or it may be a consequence of the increasing political pressures from many quarters on the leadership of PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak, but over the past several days, the PM made several announcements that are greeted with cautious cheers by all quarters. I said cautious cheers because this is a PM who has promised many things in the past but the rakyat has been disappointed again and again.

The first thing was the setting up of a parliamentary select committee to look into electoral reforms. This decision to set up a bi-partisan select committee to look into allegations of unfair and dirty elections come in the heels of the Opposition MP’s memorandum to debate the issue in the House by calling the PM to answer queries on the registration of PRs as voters in the upcoming General Elections. Incidentally, the decision to set up the committee also comes as a result of increasing pressures from the worldwide media following the 9 July Bersih 2.0 rally (although the powers-that-be will never admit to that as such an admission would mean nothing less than to legitimise the Bersih 2.0 rally that it has time and again declared to be illegal!). Of course, it remains to be seen how the select committee will be constituted – although the PM’s announcement shows at least an intention that the committee be bi-partisan in its composition. Furthermore, it remains to be seen what the findings of the select committee will be and, more importantly, whether the findings and recommendations will be implemented in time for the upcoming General Elections. The last thing that we want to see is another lip-service, cosmetic attempt to booster popularity without bringing about any real changes. The current regime has shown time and again that it lacks the political will to bring about real changes and it cannot be denied that even with this announcement, the rakyat remains sceptical that the PM means business in bringing about reforms. After all, both SUHAKAM (the Human Rights watchdogs) and the Bersih 2.0 steering committee members have already submitted their lists of recommendations on electoral reform but these efforts have been largely ignored (if not openly condemned) by the ruling government since 2008.

The second thing that the PM addressed was the need to look into censorship of the media. This announcement comes in the heels of the recent foolish move by the Home Ministry to censor contents of an article by The Economist on the Bersih 2.0 rally. I say “foolish” because the uncensored article is still readily available online on the publisher’s website. In this day and age, censorship does nothing for the ruling government except to show that it has something to hide from the rakyat and that it still thinks that the rakyat can be herded like sheep. The PM mentioned that the government should look into more effective ways of engaging the media and the freeflow of information. That being the case, there was nothing said about the repeal of archaic laws such as the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publication Act that have cast a shadow over free and unbiased reporting by the media. More often than not, through overt control of the media and covert threats leading to self-censorship, the freeflow of information in this country has been stifled. It is for this reason that “alternative” media news portals on the internet, along with social websites, are gaining popularity among the educated masses in this country. Time and again, we hear members of the ruling party complaining about the pervasive influence of the internet on the young in the country and that the government needs to also master the nooks-and-cranny of disseminating information via the internet. But they miss the point entirely. Just because UMNO and MCA leaders are now desperately setting up their own blogs or Facebook and Twitter accounts does not mean that the masses would even be interested in reading them. The reason is because the mainstream media is already controlled by them anyway. Which person in his right mind would want to read online media if the contents are the same as the drivel that is already reported in the mainstream media anyway? Without a concerted effort to free up the mainstream media by first repealing the archaic laws that restricts free speech, everything that the PM says about reviewing censorship of the media is nothing more than political hot air.

Finally, the one thing that I am generally happy about (though by no means entirely satisfied) is the announcement that the National Legal Aid Foundation (NLAF) will be in operation by October this year. Readers of this blog will have noticed that this is an issue that I have written about with not a small amount of passion in the past. I am happy that the efforts of activists – especially under the leadership of the former Bar Council president, Mr Ragunath Kesavan, have produced some laudable results. In February this year, the PM announced the setting up of the NLAF with an amount of RM5 million. This will go towards providing free legal aid to low income earners (ie less than RM25,000 per annum). Furthermore, legal practitioners who involve themselves with legal aid will be paid up to RM200 per day (as compared to pro bono work previously). This move will hopefully see more lawyers availing themselves with legal aid work – especially law lecturers who are eligible to practise in the country but are presently working with local universities and colleges. As mentioned, this is a right move in the right direction and should be lauded for what it is but it is still far from satisfactory. We are still far behind many countries in the world where legal aid means upholding the rights of citizens to a fair trial rather than something looked upon as an act of charity by the ruling government. The provision of RM5 million should be only a bare minimum starting amount to set the ball rolling but the goverment’s commitment to supporting and enhancing legal aid in the country should not end there. It remains to be seen how much further the present Najib Administration will go in supporting legal aid.

Relevant links:

• Cabinet to decide on details of electoral reform committee (The Sun’s report on 17 August 2011).
• Govt. to study media censorship to be in line with changing landscape (The Sun’s report on 16 August 2011).
• National Legal Aid to begin operation in Oct (The Star’s report on 15 August 2011).

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