Change political culture before parliamentary reform, says ex-speaker

 

Pandikar Amin Mulia says there is too much emphasis on ‘winners and losers’ in Malaysian politics.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian political scene must move away from the “zero sum game” that currently places too much emphasis on “winners and losers”, says former Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

He added that is why ahead of any parliamentary reform, there was a greater need to change the political culture in the country.

Speaking at an online forum on parliamentary reform hosted by Institut Reformasi Politik dan Demokrasi, Pandikar said this fixation on winning had reared its ugly head on numerous occasions and as a result limited potential policy changes.

He then cited the proposals prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin made to the opposition just a few days before he resigned last month.

“When the former prime minister (Muhyiddin) made the offer to the opposition, and said ‘okay, these are the things we can reform’, I thought ‘my goodness, these are the things the opposition wanted, they want Parliament to be reformed’.

“But at the time nobody was thinking about reforming Parliament, everybody was thinking about who would be the next prime minister,” he said.

Pandikar also pointed to when Pakatan Harapan was in government, saying they became aggressive towards Umno and shut them down at every opportunity at the expense of productive discourse or cooperation.

“The first thing that needs to be reformed is the political culture itself, not Parliament. Local politics is about getting numbers (votes), not making real change.”

On a separate note, Pandikar highlighted the negative effect of nicknames given to some past and present opposition figures, namely the late Karpal Singh and Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang.

“When opposition figures are given nicknames like the ‘Tiger of Jelutong’ (Karpal) or the ‘DAP Supremo’ (Lim), it puts the government on the back foot.

“With the ‘Tiger of Jelutong’ you are creating an image that this guy, when he goes to Parliament he will just fight. When you create these images within the opposition, the government becomes defensive,” he said. - FMT