The July meeting of Parliament which ended on Thursday made great strides in institutional reforms – starting with the motion requiring Members of Parliament to publicly declare their assets, followed by the historic constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 years to 18 years (which to me is a 48-year dream come true as I had first raised this subject in Parliament in 1971) and ending with the first reading of the long-awaited Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill giving the civil society three months for public feedback and consultation.

A day after the ending of the 12-day meeting of July meeting on July 18, the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad announced after a meeting of the Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption that the Freedom of Information Act will be drawn up to replace the Official Secrets Act 1972 and that major public service appointments like the chairmen and members of the Election Commission, Judicial Appointments Commission and Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) as well as the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will be referred to the parliamentary select committee.

These are impressive institutional reforms which were never attempted by the Barisan Nasional administration before but the pace of institutional reform is still too slow and unsatisfactory and more should be attempted in the next Parliamentary meeting which will meet for 36 days from October 7 to December 5, 2019. Read the rest of this entry »