Parliament not the place for difficult reform talks, says Nazir Razak

 The Yayasan Tun Razak chairman says sensitive issues should first be discussed outside Parliament, while Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan stresses the need to involve politicians.

Yayasan Tun Razak chairman Nazir Razak said that in Parliament, politicians were expected to follow party whips and appeal to their supporters, making it difficult for them to express their views freely on sensitive issues.

KUALA LUMPUR:

Yayasan Tun Razak chairman Nazir Razak says Parliament is not the appropriate place for initial discussions on contentious national reforms as politicians are often constrained by party positions and electoral considerations.

Nazir said politicians were expected to follow party whips and appeal to their supporters, making it difficult for them to express their views freely on sensitive issues.

“In Parliament, politicians have to play to their gallery and act according to their whip. So the responses or the arguments are often dictated by other forces rather than what, in their own opinion, is the best view or the honest view of a particular problem.

“That’s why some of the most successful structural reforms of systems have been done offline and then taken to Parliament,” he said during the Seri Negara Dialogue 2026 here today, which was officiated by national unity minister Aaron Ago Dagang.

Nazir reiterated his call for a second National Consultative Council to provide a platform for discussions on issues such as affirmative action, national identity, the balance of institutional powers and corruption.

The former CIMB Group chairman cited Ireland’s deliberative process on abortion reform as an example of how difficult issues could first be discussed outside Parliament before proposals were brought to lawmakers.

Syahredzan Johan.

Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan said politicians must be involved in such discussions as they were often the first to receive complaints from ordinary Malaysians and understood the problems affecting their constituents.

He said social media also gave a misleading impression of Parliament, with confrontations between MPs gaining more traction than substantive policy discussions.

Syahredzan cited parliamentary select committees as examples of how MPs from opposing parties could work constructively when discussions took place without cameras or pressure to play to the gallery.

He agreed that discussions without cameras could be more productive, but said politicians should participate alongside representatives from other sectors, with national interests taking precedence over political interests.

Reviewing the electoral system

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs CEO Aira Azhari suggested reviewing Malaysia’s first-past-the-post electoral system, saying the current system could be contributing to increasingly divisive politics.

She said Malaysia’s changing ethnic composition, including a shrinking non-Malay population, would affect electoral politics and how political parties compete for support.

Aira also warned that the perception of a shrinking economic pie could worsen competition between communities, with each seeing the other’s gains as coming at its own expense.

She said the first-past-the-post system, when combined with existing divisions in society, could contribute to this zero-sum political game.

“There is something within the system itself that can be tweaked that might change the rules of the game,” she said. Aira, however, did not elaborate on what changes should be made to the electoral system. - FMT