An eventful month for reforms

On July 25, the Dewan Negara passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 with the requisite two-thirds majority. This comes after the Dewan Rakyat similarly passed the same bill on July 16.

With this, the Federal Constitution will be amended to lower the voting age and the eligible age to stand for elections to 18. 

The bill will also allow the Election Commission to implement automatic registration of voters. The EC will be looking at ways to implement this, while at the same time, undertake the task of cleaning up the electoral roll.

These constitutional amendments may be the most significant constitutional amendments in terms of the impact on the sheer number of Malaysians.

Yet the passage of the bill was not the only activity at the second meeting of the second session of the 14th Parliament.

This session also saw members of the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara giving their approval to the motions to compel MPs and senators to declare their assets. The assets would then be published in a website maintained by the MACC.

The approval of these motions, tabled separately at both Houses, comes after MPs who are ministers and deputy ministers, as well as backbenchers, declared their assets and had the same published online.

Civil society has long called for elected representatives to declare their assets. The approval of the asset declaration motions goes a long way towards encouraging transparency and accountability on the part of those who hold public office.

The Dewan Rakyat also passed amendments to the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012. It was initially was enacted to replace Section 27 of the Police Act. 

Under the law, a peaceful assembly no longer required a permit from the police. Instead, the organiser would only need to notify the police of the assembly 10 days before the assembly. Failure to do so would be a criminal offence, and the organiser may be fined up to RM10,000.00. 

With the recent amendments, the notice period has been cut short to five days. The offending organiser may also be compounded, instead of facing a charge in court.

Most importantly, the amendments would allow for ‘street protests’, defined in the act as "an open-air assembly which begins with a meeting at a specified place and consists of walking in a mass march or rally for the purpose of objecting to or advancing a particular cause or causes."

Such street protests were absolutely prohibited when the act was first enacted.

While these changes are welcomed, some have also opined that these amendments do not go far enough to truly uphold the rakyat’s fundamental right to peaceful assembly.

Lastly, on the last day of the Dewan Rakyat sitting, the Federal Government tabled the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission Bill 2019.

The bill proposes the setting up of the IPCMC, an independent external oversight body of the police force.

The pros and cons of the IPCMC bill will be debated in the months to come, before the third meeting of Parliament, which will begin in October.

The month of July has seen many important reforms tabled and passed in Parliament. It has certainly been an eventful month for those who are passionate about these changes.

But there are still many other areas which are in dire need of reforms. It is hoped the country will see more of such positive developments in institutional and legal reforms in the months to come.

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SYAHREDZAN JOHAN is a civil liberties lawyer and political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang. - Mkini