Is the PSC yet another con job?

The government has a bad track record of implementing suggestions from past commissions, so how different will it be with the Parliamentary Select Committee?

PETALING JAYA: How effective will the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) be if it has no powers to enforce and implement its suggestion? How different will it be from past commissions whose findings have come to nought?

These are the questions bugging Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel).

Speaking to FMT, Mafrel secretary-general Shaharudin Othman said: “Before we even ask the question of who should head PSC, we should take a step back and ask why even have PSC.

“Take the RCI (Royal Commission of Inquiry) on the the Lingam tape: even when they named the people involved, were there any actions taken?” he asked.

“The Parliamentary Accountability Committee (PAC) is an organ in the parliamentary system which questions mismanagement. But what has it done?

“Only when all the previous recommendations are looked into and some sincerity is shown in their implementation, will the PSC matter.”

Shaharudin said the PSC merely had the power to make suggestions which can easily be ignored by the government.

“The composition of the committee hardly matters as results have not been seen based on previous government actions.

“We have been living through many, many years based on promises.

“If there is no drastic change in the way the government does things, then we are merely living in the climate of broken promises,” he said.

‘Opposition has more stake’

Bersih 2.0 steering commitee member Maria Chin Abdullah also agreed.

“The government must make sure that the recommendations are implemented.

“This isn’t about Bersih, the government or the opposition. The people will observe the progress and they are the ones who will decide at the end of the day,” she said.

She also pointed out that having a minister head the nine-member PSC was not going to help increase public confidence in the electoral reform process.

She believed that the opposition should lead the committee as it had more at stake over electoral reforms.

“If you look at all the recent allegations of electoral irregularities, it is the opposition which has been vocal about them.

“The opposition should chair the committee because it has more at stake and more to lose.

“The government seems to be quite happy with the current process so it reflects a bias. We hope the government will take into account public confidence.

“If it goes on acting in its own interest, it will not inspire much public confidence,” she told FMT.

Maria Chin also noted that the nine committee members – comprising five MPs from the ruling government, three from the opposition and an independent – reflected a pro-government bias.

Individual credibility

“There should be equal numbers from the government and opposition. I don’t even know why an independent MP needs to be included.

“The membership of the committee should depend on who is familiar with the electoral issues.

“These independent MPs are also more inclined to (side with) the government,” she said.

However, Maria Chin said the situation could be “turned around” by having continuous consultations with the public and all NGOs.

“Many times, the public are consulted in the process but not consulted before the final product is tabled to parliament.

“This has to change for the suggestions to be more effective,” she said.

Former Suhakam commissioner Hamdan Adnan, however, felt that it was the individual parliamentarian’s credibility that mattered more than which bloc he represented.

Hamdan, who was involved in the 2007 report on the electoral process, said: “It doesn’t matter if it is the government or the opposition.

“He must be independent, credible and have a proven track record in dealing with matters relating to the polls.

“He also must be trusted by the rakyat to be able to carry out the job. That is the crux of the matter here,” he said.

When asked if any Barisan Nasional MP truly commanded the people’s confidence on the matter, he said that there were still some who would be able to fit the bill.